Monument record MDO42838 - Iron Age, Romano-British field system, Hog Cliff Hill and Hyde Crook, Maiden Newton

Banked and ditched linear features are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs and on current Lidar imagery in the area of Hog Cliff Hill and Hyde Crook, Maiden Newton. The features are considered likely to be field boundaries and enclosures associated with an extensive Iron Age/Romano-British field system. The field system is situated closely adjacent to an Iron Age enclosed settlement (MDO1588) cut by Long Ash Lane, formerly the route of the Roman road between Ilchester and Dorchester. The features were digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Frome AIM project.

(Central SY 627965). Field systems plotted from air photographs (not cited) in 1949 by Atkinson. <1>

Centred SY 627965. A large area of a mainly fragmentary and poorly defined Iron Age/Romano-British 'Celtic' field system. The best preserved areas are at SY 62649708 where prominent lynchets and field banks form rectilinear fields under pasture.
Low rectinlinear fields are also visible at SY 63159690, and to the north east of Hyde Crook Belt and the Roman road (RR 47), in the area SY 630963, are lynchets averaging 0.5m high. Within Hyde Crook plantation at SY 62559633, and to the south west are similar, prominent lynchets. A large lynchet at SY 62609632 is bisected by the Roman road and the modern road. <2>

Well-defined lynchets and field banks forming rectilinear fields are visible in area SY 621964 and SY 630964 on air photographs.
Elsewhere, within the delineated area, centred SY 627965, the remains are faintly defined or fragmentary. <3>

The 'Celtic' field system is generally in poor condition with the lynchets barely visible or much reduced. At Hyde Crook (SY 625963) the lynchets still stand to a height of 11.7m within 4.5 ha of garden. <4>

Banked and ditched linear features are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs <5-6> and on current Lidar imagery <7> in the area of Hogg Cliff Hill and Hyde Crook, Maiden Newton. The features are considered likely to be field boundaries and enclosures associated with an extensive Iron Age/Romano-British field system. The field system is situated closely adjacent to an Iron Age enclosed settlement (MDO1588) cut by Long Ash Lane, formerly the route of the Roman road between Ilchester and Dorchester. Additional areas of prehistoric field systems continue on the east side of Long Ash Road (MDO423859).

The features were digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Frome AIM project. Some of the features are still visible as cropmarks on current Google Earth imagery.

<1> Atkinson, R J C, 1949, spec 6 inch (RJCA 1.3.49) (Map). SWX1583.

<2> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, F1 NVQ 02-FEB-55 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<3> Ordnance Survey, 1969, OS 69/114 048-151 (Aerial Photograph). SDO19988.

<4> Attrill, N J, Field Investigators Comments NJA, F2 NJA 12-FEB-81 (Unpublished document). SDO14743.

<5> Royal Air Force, 22-JAN-48, RAF/CPE/UK/2431 RS 4272-3 (Aerial Photograph). SDO16841.

<6> Ordnance Survey, 18-APR-69, OS69114/049 (Aerial Photograph). SDO16848.

<7> Environment Agency, XX-XXX-2019, LIDAR Environment Agency Composite LAST RETURN (Photograph). SDO16524.

<8> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/088 RCHME Inventory: Dorset I (West) and Revision (Unpublished document). SDO17367.

<9> National Record of the Historic Environment, 453068 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jul 21 2023 4:20PM