Monument record MDO4334 - Melbury Beacon, Melbury Hill, Melbury Abbas

Listed by H T White as being the site of a beacon, number 27 (1)

The beacon site has the remains of a hearth, a hollow, 8m in diameter and 0.5m deep, surrounded by a protective bank, possibly a buried stone wall, with what appears to be two flues, on the southern and eastern sides, extending outwards 3.4m. Both flues have kinks at the end presumably to facilitate through draught. The beacon is mentioned in a letter concerning the county defences in 1588, Armada year, which stated that Melbury was to be fired to warn Wiltshire's inhabitants of impending attack. Hutchins in his History of Dorset, 1774, lists the beacon and it is shown on Greenwood's map of about 1825, suggesting continued use.

<1> Russell, P, 1959, White's Schedule of The Dorset Beacons. Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeology Society 81 (Article in serial). SWX1179.

<2> 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).'

<3> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1960, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1959, 103-106 (Serial). SDO59.

Record last edited

Nov 2 2024 8:48AM