Monument record MDO42980 - Iron Age farmstead, New Barn, Maiden Newton

A banked and ditched rectilinear enclosure is visible as earthworks on aerial photographs to the west of New Barn, Maiden Newton. The features are recorded as an Iron Age farmstead, along with a well-preserved part of an extensive Iron Age/Romano-British field system (MDO42979) to the north and west. The features were digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Frome AIM project.

A banked and ditched rectilinear enclosure is visible as earthworks on aerial photographs to the west of New Barn, Maiden Newton (1, 2). The north side of the enclosure is the best preserved, indicating an outer bank and ditch approximately 84m across, as well as fragments of additional banks and ditches. A modern trackway dissects the enclosure from west to east and irregular earthworks at the western corner indicate part of a later pond. Partial banks are visible to the southeast, possibly part of the enclosure's southeast side, completing an enclosure approximating 84m by 80m (2). Investigations withing the enclosure produced flint rubble flooring and a quantity of Iron Age/Romano-British pottery sherds (see NRHE Hob UID 453063).
The features are recorded as an Iron Age farmstead and is a Scheduled Monument (List Entry 1002859), along with a well-preserved part of an extensive Iron Age/Romano-British field system (MDO42979; NRHE Hob UID 453063) to the north and west. The features were digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Frome AIM project.

<1> Royal Air Force, 11-NOV-71, RAF/39/3829 V 0039-40 (Aerial Photograph). SDO16911.

<2> National Monuments Record, 06-SEPT-12, NMR 27602/007 (SY6198/004) (Aerial Photograph). SDO16916.

<3> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments England, 1952, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume I (West), 153 (Monograph). SDO97.

'(15) CELTIC FIELD SYSTEM occupies the N. end of the parish. The chief remains, on the E. side of Combe Bottom, include a number of hollowed tracks between the field-banks which may indicate the near neighbourhood of a settlement. There are further traces of cultivation to the S.E. of Norden Lane.'

Record last edited

Dec 13 2024 7:10AM