Monument record MDO42873 - Medieval trackway, Grimstone Down, Stratton

Banked and ditched linear features are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs on Grimstone Down, Stratton. The features probably represent a trackway of possible late prehistoric origin, which during the medieval period was re-used to create the medieval monastic road between Abbotsbury and Cerne (Hob UID 453808). They were digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Frome AIM project.

Banked and ditched linear features are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs on Grimstone Down, Stratton (1-3). The features appear to comprise a ditched trackway with banks on either side. At its southern end it heads southwest to link into a north-south running trackway recorded as being the route of the medieval monastic road between Abbotsbury and Cerne (Hob UID 453808). At its northern end it runs north along the east side of an Iron Age/Romano-British settlement (MDO42865), where it appears to link in with some of the earthworks associated with this. The trackway is possibly of late prehistoric origin, which during the medieval period was re-used to form part of the medieval monastic road. The later prehistoric trackway may be one that ran between Batcombe Hill and Wrackleford (NRHE Hob UID 453808). The features were digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Frome AIM project.

The northern end of the trackway is still visible on current Google Earth imagery.

<1> National Monuments Record, 26-MAR-68, SY6495/5 (NMR666/385) (Aerial Photograph). SDO16867.

<2> National Monuments Record, 26-MAR-68, SY6495/2 (NMR666/379) (Aerial Photograph). SDO16866.

<3> National Monuments Record, 02-FEB-71, SY6495/10 (NMR285/283) (Aerial Photograph). SDO16864.

Record last edited

Dec 21 2024 6:43AM