Monument record MDO43563 - Admiralty Shutter Telegraph Station, Bell Hill, Okeford Fitzpaine

Admiralty shutter telegraph station formerley situated on Bell Hill. Built in 1806, disused by 1814. A rectangular banked earthwork divided by a later field boundary is visible on a 1940s aerial photograph and was digitally plotted during the Mid Dorset Downs AIM project.

A station on the Admiralty Shutter Telegraph system to Plymouth, constructed 1806, was situated at Bell Hill. Adjoining stations were at Blandford to the east (ST 90 NW 72) and at Nettlecombe Tout (ST 70 SW64) to the west.

The system ceased operation in September 1814. <2>


A rectangular banked earthwork is visible on a 1940s aerial photograph (RAF 1947). The earthwork is approximately 55m by 45m in size and comprises a narrow rectangular bank with no obvious entrance, but does appear to be divided by a later field boundary. The feature is shown as a smaller sub-square feature on the OS Epoch 1 25 inch map (OS c1880). It was digitally plotted during the Mid Dorset Downs AIM project. The feature is possibly just discernable as a cropmark on 2002 Google Earth iamgery (GE 2002) but is no longer visible on later Google Earth or current lidar imagery.

Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, epoch 1 (Map). SDO10239.

Royal Air Force, 17-JAN-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1934 RS 4170 (Aerial Photograph). SDO21602.

Google Earth, 2002, Google Earth imagery 2002 (Aerial Photograph). SDO15980.

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 2 Inch, 1808-9 (Map). SDO17759.

(ST 80040841) Telegraph Station (NAT)

<2> Wilson, G, 1976, The Old Telegraphs, 25, 31 (Monograph). SWX8165.

<3> National Record of the Historic Environment, 205562 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Dec 29 2025 9:13AM