Monument record MDO43344 - Iron Age / Romano-British Celtic field system, Ibberton and Woolland

Area centred ST 791075. The strong lynchets of Iron Age/Romano-British type in the Chitcombe Down - Ibberton Hill area have been utilized to some extent in later times. The area between the lynchets has been ploughed and many lynchets have been used to form the basis of modern field boundaries.

Medieval or later cultivation remains lie on the steep scarp immediately north east of Ibberton church where a group of eight contour strip lynchets covers about 22 acres (ST 791077). Originally the strips were up to 400 yds long with risers up to 18ft. high, but extensive alterations were made to the group before 1840, as a result of enclosure. Two of the fields are laid out across the risers of the original strips, and subsequent ploughing in these fields has produced secondary risers cutting obliquely across the older treads. Some 500 yds south east of the church, also on the scarp slope, further contour strip lynchets overlie 'Celtic' fields (see below). <1>

i) Strip lynchets apparently lie over 'Celtic' fields on Ibberton Hill at ST 791072.

ii) A block of eight Medieval or later contour strip lynchets with risers up to 20ft cover some 15 acres of the steep north-west face of the scarp immediately east of Chitcombe Farm, at ST 787069. These and two other strip lynchets in Launch Wood (ST 777066) may be part of the open fields of Chitcombe (see ST 70 NE 27 for settlement remains). <<2>

<1> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, F1 NVQ 19-AUG-55 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<1.1> Royal Air Force, 1975, RAF CPE/UK/1975 4028, 1975 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17509.

<1.2> Royal Air Force, 22-JAN-1948, RAF/CPE/UK/2431 4336-40, 22-JAN-1948 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17510.

<2> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 2, 316 (Monograph). SDO136.

<3> National Record of the Historic Environment, 201776 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Aug 23 2024 11:14AM