Monument record MDO41659 - Possible late prehistoric field system, New Barn Farm, Shapwick

Banked and ditched linear features to the southwest of New Barn Farm are visible on aerial photographs and current Lidar imagery. The features are considered likely to be field boundaries and possibly trackways associated with a field system of possible late prehistoric date. They were digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

Banked and ditched linear features to the southwest of New Barn Farm are visible on aerial photographs and current Lidar imagery (1-3).

The features predominantly comprise broad linear banks arranged parallel and perpendicular to each other on a broadly E-W alignment. This alignment mirrors adjacent historic boundaries and trackways recorded on the OS 1st Edition map, although the features appear to underlie these (4). The pattern of surrounding historic enclosure, with large regular fields and straight field boundaries, indicates probable post-medieval enclosure (a droveway is also recorded on the OS 1st Edition map, running through the site and probably historically leading onto an area of unenclosed upland ground).

The evidence points to these features being part of a field system of possible late prehistoric date. In addition to the banked linear features is a short section of narrow curvilinear ditch visible as a cropmark on a 2005 aerial photograph (3). The feature may be contemporary, possibly part of a late prehistoric trackway.

The site is still fields on current Google Earth imagery, with much modern boundary changes. The features are visible as faint cropmarks in some years and are visible on current Lidar imagery (2). They were digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

<1> Royal Air Force, 12-DEC-46, RAF/CPE/UK/1893 RS 4093-4 (Aerial Photograph). SDO16214.

<2> Environment Agency, XX-XXX-2015, Environment Agency DTM Lidar 50cm (Aerial Photograph). SDO15306.

<3> Dorset County Council, 2005, Digital vertical aerial photographs (Aerial Photograph). SDO12570.

<4> Ordnance Survey, 1864, 1886, Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, epoch one (Map). SDO10239.

Record last edited

Sep 17 2018 1:34PM