Monument record MDO42932 - Bronze Age settlement, Shearplace Hill, Sydling St Nicholas

A banked and ditched multiple enclosure is visible as earthworks and cropmarks on aerial photographs on Shearplace Hill, Sydling St Nicholas. The feature is recorded as a Martin Down Enclosure of Middle to Late Bronze Age date (Hob UID453117) and is a Scheduled Monument (List Entry 1002766). It was digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Frome AIM project.

A banked and ditched multiple enclosure is visible as earthworks and cropmarks on aerial photographs and on current Lidar imagery on Shearplace Hill, Sydling St Nicholas (1-5). The feature is recorded as a Martin Down Enclosure of Middle to Late Bronze Age date (Hob UID453117) and is a Scheduled Monument (List Entry 1002766).

The feature appears to comprise a central banked and ditched enclosure approximately 30m long by 42m wide, with a banked causeway leading into an entrance on its north side. A double banked track or hollow way runs along the south side of the enclosure and possibly cuts through, suggesting it may be a later feature. A second such track or hollow way runs along the north side of the enclosure. A further sub-rectilinear enclosure is visible as a cropmark to the south, bounded or truncated on the north and west sides by later field boundaries. The settlement is situated within a wider area of linear banks and ditches that form part of an extensive field system of probable Iron Age/Romano-British date (MDO42933).

The features were digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Frome AIM project.

<1> Royal Air Force, 11-APR-47, RAF/CPE/UK/1794 RP 3377-8 (Aerial Photograph). SDO16888.

<2> John Boyden, JAN 69, SY6498/4 (JRB108/21) (Aerial Photograph). SDO16886.

<3> National Monuments Record, 04-MAR-70, SY6498/6 (NMR169/137) (Aerial Photograph). SDO16889.

<4> Environment Agency, XX-XXX-2019, LIDAR Environment Agency Composite LAST RETURN (Photograph). SDO16524.

<5> Royal Air Force, 11-NOV-71, RAF/39/3829 V 0034-5 (Aerial Photograph). SDO16891.

<6> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1959, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1958, 100-101 (Serial). SDO58.

Record last edited

Dec 21 2024 6:41AM