Monument record MDO43766 - Drove road, ditches and enclosure, Sherborne

The cropmarks of a possible medieval drove road, and associated field boundary ditches and a possible enclosure can be seen on HE Reconnaissance aerial photographs. The cropmark features could possibly be medieval in origin but they are not dissimilar to other enclosure and trackway sites in Dorset that could be of potentially Iron Age to Romano-British origin, so it is possible these features are in fact earlier in date.

The cropmarks of a possible medieval drove road, and associated field boundary ditches and a possible enclosure can be seen on HE Reconnaissance aerial photographs taken on 16th July 2013. These cropmarks are centred on ST 6421 1813. There are two elements to the drove road. An east-west route can be seen for approximately 200m. This forms a crossroads with a second drove road approaching from the south. After this junction, the second drove road curves north-east. This curve echoes the current field boundary and suggests that this road once connected with the surviving lane to the east. The curving drove road passes very close to the cropmark of a Bronze Age ring ditch (NRHE1621648) and the ditches of both appear to overlap each other. This implies that the barrow within this ring ditch was extant when the road was laid out. The possible enclosure is located at the south-western corner of the crossroads and is partly defined by the ditches to the drove road.(1)

A rectilinear enclosure and part of a second possible enclosure are visible as cropmarks on an aerial photograph of 2013 (HE 2013). The enclosures are positioned adjacent to two trackways crossing perpendicular to each other. A further possible trackway and additonal linear features are faintly visible as cropmarks on the same aerial photograph to the southwest. A ring ditch cropmark of a possible Bronze Age barrow sits adjacent to the north side of the trackway running broadly north to south, the possible barrow being the earliest feature. The trackways extend towards fields to the west, north and east, suggesting the features are part of a wider complex.

The cropmark features could possibly be medieval in origin but they are not dissimilar to other enclosure and trackway sites in Dorset that could be of potentially Iron Age to Romano-British origin, so it is possible these features are in fact earlier in date.

Historic England, National Record of the Historic Environment, 1621656 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Historic England, 16-JUL-2013, 27756_036-042 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17990.

Record last edited

Aug 14 2026 2:49PM