Monument record MDO41649 - Possible post medieval extractive pits, Corfe Mullen

A row of three possible post medieval extractive pits on open heathland at Corfe Mullen are visible on 1940s aerial photographs. The feature may be post medieval extractive pits but could alternatively be of modern military origin, perhaps weapons pits or World War II bomb craters. The features were digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

A row of three possible post medieval extractive pits on open heathland at Corfe Mullen are visible on 1940s aerial photographs.

The features comprise three irregular ditched hollows of varying dimensions between 1m and 3m lon long by 1m-2m wide. Surrounding these are irrgular enclosing banks, likely to be formed through the casting up of earth from the ditched hollows.

Similar features are visible across large parts of the Dorset heathland, typically situated within areas of both post medieval extraction and early 20th Century military activity. It is often hard to positively identify these small banked and ditched features with one or the other, although some are more clearly military in origin. These features may be post medieval extractive pits but could alternatively be of modern military origin, perhaps weapons pit or, given their arrangement, possibly World War II bomb craters.

The site is under housing on current Google Earth imagery and the features are no longer visible, presumed levelled. They were digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

<1> Royal Air Force, 05-SEP-47, RAF/CPE/UK/2289 Vp3 5291-2 (Aerial Photograph). SDO16203.

Record last edited

Sep 4 2018 12:23PM