Monument record MDO41137 - Possible early 20th century transmitter site, Gussage All Saints

A group of three banked and ditched features each containing an individual building or structure are visible to the north of Gussage All Saints on 1940s aerial photographs. The features may be associated with an early 20th century transmitter site of some description; possibly military in origin.They were digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

A group of three banked and ditched features each containing an individual building or structure are visible to the north of Gussage All Saints on 1940s aerial photographs (1).

The features are arranged in a narrow triangle within a field to the north of Gussage All Saints. They are set between 74m and 100m apart. The clarity of detail in a 1947 aerial photograph (1) is obscure but the features appear to comprise a raised bank, which by 1947 has been subjected to substantial erosion and loss of definition. In the northernmost of the three features the bank appears most intact and possibly surrounded by a ditched pathway or strip of levelled and cleared ground. Within each feature there appears to be a rectangular structure or building. The base of these structures vary in size, between 6m and 10m long by 2.5m and 4m wide. It is not clear how tall these buildings or structures might be as the detail is obscure. Nor is it possible to determine whether the structure is set up on the bank or enclosed within it. In two of the features the eroded bank has exposed a cleared area around each central structure, suggesting that the base of the structure was originally set at ground level within the raised banked area but this is not certain.

The features may be associated with an early 20th century transmitter site of some description; possibly military in origin and assumedly in that case associated with World War Two communications and defence.

The site is stillopen fields under crops on current Google Earth imagery. The features are no longer visible. They were digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP.

<1> Royal Air Force, 27-APR-47, RAF/CPE/UK/2038 V 3242-3 (Aerial Photograph). SDO16040.

Record last edited

Jun 8 2018 2:01PM