Monument record MDO43232 - Roman well shrine on Winterborne Kingston Down

A Roman well on Winterborne Kingston Down was excavated by Mansel-Pleydell in 1890. The well was said to be near the Roman road and to another Roman well and the Romano-British settlement at Bagwood, but cannot be more precisely located. A rectangular pit containing burnt pottery, flints and ashes was excavated close to the well, suggesting association with a shrine.

A Roman well was discovered at Winterborne Kingston (SY 8597) in 1888, situated within a few hundred yards of the Roman road (RR 4e), near the extensive earthworks on Kingston Down (probably the IA/RB field system, SY 89 NW 33) and in a neighbouring field to the well excavated in 1860 (SY 89 NE 5). Its contents included six coins from AD 82 to AD 330, two fibulae and other bronze ornaments, much pottery including a few Samian and New Forest sherds, iron nails, a small intaglio, animal bones and part of a quern. The well was 3 1/2 feet in diameter at the top and over 85 feet deep. About 4 feet east of it was an area about 6 feet in diameter, probably of a religious character, demarcated by eight burnt tiles set edgeways at intervals. At the centre of the area was a small conical sarsen stone, near which lay an iron knife. A few feet north of the circle was a pit 6 feet by 5 feet by 4 feet deep containing about two cartloads of broken pottery, flints and ashes. <1>

Among objects from the well in the county museum is a short strip of thin sheet bronze bearing a crudely executed outline of a hare and two alphabetical symbols, apparently of religious significance, and comparable with the sceptre-binding from the Romano-Celtic temple on Farley Heath, Surrey. Although the well implies permanent occupation, no remains of masonry have been recorded. <2>

Classified as ritual shaft by Ross and Green. <3> <5>

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1890, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club, 1-6 (Serial). SDO6.

<2> Society of Antiquaries of London, 1953, The Antiquaries Journal 33, 74-5 (Serial). SDO16818.

<3> Coles and Simpson (eds), 1968, Studies in Ancient Europe : essays presented to Stuart Piggott, 274 (Monograph). SWX2244.

<4> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 2, 303 (Monograph). SDO136.

‘(21) ROMANO-BRITISH WELL on Kingston Down, excavated by J. C. Mansel-Pleydell in 1890, is not precisely located. The finds are in D.C.M. The well lay at about 200 ft. above O.D. and was dug into Chalk, overlaid by wash from Woolwich and Reading Beds. The well was 32/3 ft. in diameter and 85 ft. deep to the water level; for the lowest 12 ft. its diameter increased to 4⅓ ft. The filling included samian and coarse pottery, coins from the late 1st to the 4th centuries, bronze brooches and bracelets, pieces of shale, an engraved bloodstone, and a shallow Purbeck marble vase. A piece of bronze strip incised with a bird figure may have decorated a priest's sceptre. A circle of tiles 6 ft. in diameter lay 4 ft. E. of the well and enclosed a small sarsen stone and an iron knife. To the N.E. was a rectangular pit, 6 ft. by 5 ft. in area and 4 ft. deep, containing burnt pottery and flints and ashes. These and the contents of the well suggest that the site was associated with a shrine. (Dorset Procs. XI (1890), 1–6; Ant. J. XXXIII (1953), 74–5).’

<5> Green, M J, 1976, A Corpus of Religious Material from the Civilian Areas of Roman Britain, 202 (Monograph). SDO17755.

<6> National Record of the Historic Environment, 455716 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

May 8 2024 11:46AM