Monument record MDO4333 - Circular Enclosure, Melbury Hill, Melbury Abbas

A circular enclosure surrounding Melbury Beacon on the summit of Melbury Hill. Its date and function are not certain. It may be a plantation boundary of no great antiquity. The record for this monument has been enhanced with support from Wessex Water.

Surrounding Melbury beacon and the summit of Melbury Hill is a circular enclosure, 120m in diameter, with a bank, 2.5m wide and 0.3m high, and an internal ditch 1m wide and 0.2m deep. There is no visible entrance but the bank has been disturbed on the south east side of the enclosure. The date and function of this enclosure is not known, and its relationship to the beacon is uncertain.

'Meleberig Dune'. <2>

A low irregular entrenchment surrounds Melbury Beacon. Description on plan, nothing in text. <3>

An ancient circular earthwork, supposed to be of British origin. <4>

No reference to the Md. Character of Melbury Beacon was found during recording but the topographical position and extensive view obtainable at the site is such as to reasonably assume that it was used as a beacon in Md. Times. The perfectly circular earthwork which surrounds the site consists of a small bank with an inner ditch. The bank is 1.5m wide and 0.2m. High; the ditch 1.0m. Wide and 0.1m deep. There is no visible entrance, but the S.W. quadrant has been severely mutilated by animal burrows and modern surface digging. The interior of the enclosure has slight hummocks and depressions, and is under rough pasture. The condition, size and shape of the earthwork does not suggest great antiquity, and it is not of a prehistoric nature: it encircles the hill well below the summit and its weakness is inherent. From appearance it is more like a plantation boundary bank and ditch, and as such would probably be of comparatively modern date. <5>

Confirms 5 above. <6>

No change since 23.1.56. <7>

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1930 (Map). SWX1540.

[Centred at ST 87311973] MELBURY BEACON [O.E.]

<2> Crawford, O G S, Annotated record map 6 inch (Map). SWX7265.

<3> Sumner, H, The Ancient Earthworks of Cranborne Chase (Monograph). SDO16661.

<4> Ordnance Survey, 1929, Ordnance Survey Object Name Book reference revision 1929 (Unpublished document). SDO18525.

<4.1> Way, G C, 1900, Oral information, correspondence (not archived) or staff comments: G C Way (Estate agent to Sir R Glen) May 1900 (Verbal communication). SDO17849.

<5> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, F1 NVQ 23-JAN-56 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<6> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1972, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume IV (North), 48 (Monograph). SDO99.

(16) ENCLOSURE (873197), on the summit of Melbury Hill and more than 850 ft. above O.D., commands wide views in every direction. The feature forms an almost perfect circle about 400 ft. in diameter, with a low bank and an internal ditch ; there is not visible entrance. The earth work appears to be of now great antiquity ; it might be a plantation boundary. There is little doubt that this hill-top was the site of Melbury Beacon, one of a series of fire-beacons in use at the time of the Armada (Dorset Procs., 81 (1959), 103-6).

<7> Barrett, G, Various, Field Investigators Comments GB, F2 GB 03-JAN-78 (Unpublished document). SDO17369.

<8> DCMS, 1999, Scheduled Monument Notification 1999, 10-Aug-99 (Scheduling record). SDO17351.

<9> National Record of the Historic Environment, 205840 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Nov 2 2024 8:46AM