Monument record MDO42940 - Possible post medieval chalk pit, Farm Field Barn, Sydling St Nicholas

A large sub-circular banked pit or hollow is visible as an earthwork on aerial photographs enclosing Farm Field Barn, Sydling St Nicholas. The feature is recorded on the OS 1st Edition map and may be a large post medieval chalk pit re-used as the site of a field barn. Alternatively it may be a settlement enclosure of uncertain date (late prehistoric to medieval?), although this seems less likely. It was digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Frome AIM project.

A large sub-circular banked pit or enclosure is visible as an earthwork on aerial photographs enclosing Farm Field Barn, Sydling St Nicholas (1). The feature is recorded on the OS 1st Edition map where it appears to comprise several narrow irregular and sub-circular plots around a small field barn (2). Historic field boundaries abut the feature on its north, east and west sides, suggesting they post-date the circular feature and indicating a post-medieval or earlier origin, prior to the enclosure of the higher ground at this location.

The feature is visible on a 1947 aerial photograph (1) as a sub-circular hollow or depresssion approximately 70m in diameter and enclosed by a narrow vegetated bank. A barn/farmstead is still extant within the hollow, accessed by an un-made up field track. The feature may be a large post medieval chalk pit re-used as the site of a field barn/farmstead. Alternatively it may be a settlement enclosure of uncertain date (late prehistoric to medieval?), although this seems less likely. The feature was digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Frome AIM project.

It is still visible as an earthwork on current Google Earth imagery; the interior building is no longer extant (3).

<1> Royal Air Force, 11-APR-47, RAF/CPE/UK/1794 RP 3376-7 (Aerial Photograph). SDO16894.

<2> Ordnance Survey, 1864, 1886, Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, epoch one (Map). SDO10239.

<3> Google Earth, 16-09-2020, Google Earth imagery 2020 (Aerial Photograph). SDO16840.

Record last edited

Nov 25 2020 1:32PM