Monument record MDO41254 - Possible medieval hollow way, Bear Wood, Bournemouth

Banked and ditched linear and curvilinear features in a field to the northeast of Bear Wood are visible on 1940s aerial photographs. The features are considered to be those of a trackway, possibly a hollow way of medieval origin. Alternatively they may be a trackway or causeway of medieval to post medieval date. They were digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

Banked and ditched linear and curvilinear features in a field to the northeast of Bear Wood are visible on 1940s aerial photographs (1 and 2).

The features comprise a sinuous linear ditch around 1.5m wide and aligned east to west, heading towards the Stour riverbank. Either side of the ditch are broken lengths of bank up to 4.5m wide. The feature extends for just over 200m from the corner of a historic field boundary recorded on the OS 1st Edition map to the riverbank. The feature is truncated by a second historic field boundary, also features on the OS 1st Edition map and possibly post medieval in date (3).

The features are considered to be those of a trackway, possibly a hollow way of medieval origin. Alternatively they may be those of a trackway or causeway of medieval to post medieval date.

The site is still open ground on current Google Earth imagery and the features are still visible. They were digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

<1> Royal Air Force, 30-OCT-45, RAF/106G/T/16 FVp1 7039-40 (Aerial Photograph). SDO16082.

<2> Royal Air Force, 12-DEC-46, RAF/CPE/UK/1893 RP 3259-60 (Aerial Photograph). SDO16081.

Record last edited

Jul 20 2018 10:48AM