Monument record MDO4382 - Prehistoric field system, Milborne St Andrew

Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 417-9 (Monograph). SDO150.

'Group (30): Roke Down and Bere Down West (SY 89 NW; 813964–831974), Bere Regis. 'Celtic' fields, mostly broken and in parts overlain by strip ploughing, cover 220 acres between 160 ft. and 320 ft. above O.D. on the sides and floor of a shallow valley running S.E.N.W. The subsoil is chalk with some clay and pebble capping. Lynchets are generally very well developed but only survive clearly at the N.E. of the group and near a probable settlement (a) at the S.W. Fields have been carefully fitted around a long barrow, Bere Regis (66), and a number of round barrows, all at or near field angles. The parish boundary which forms the W. limit of the group generally lies on a bank (see Dykes, Bere Regis (119)), which is interrupted by the track W. from (a). 160 yds. S.E. of Roke Barn, about 821963, is a low banked circle about 18 ft. across, without entrance, and probably modern.

(i) Roke Down. S.E. of the former Roke Barn, lynchets are in places up to 21 ft. high, though most are levelled. Strip ploughing is apparent and immediately S.E. of Roke Barn is marked by ridge-and-furrow 15 yds. to 17 yds. broad and up to 1 ft. high. At 81559625 is a probable settlement area, (a), of about 1½ acres, on the sheltered N. brow of an E.-W. ridge with 'Celtic' fields above and below. It consists of an almost flat strip of ground 50 ft. to 100 ft. wide with occasional low and poorly defined platforms along it, which stretches for 750 ft. on the S. side of a scarped track, now partly hollowed, up to 21 ft. wide. This track terminates at the E. end of the supposed settlement where there are two ill-marked curved platforms set into the hillside below another platform measuring about 70 ft. by 24 ft.

(ii) Bere Down. At the W. end of the Down, on ground sloping gently S.W., lynchets are frequently about 4 ft. high, though all ploughed over, and no complete fields survive. Long barrow (66), the ditches of which cannot be seen, appears to have been used as a 'Celtic' field side (R.A.F. V.A.P. CPE/UK 1934: 4117–9.)'

<1> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 2, 343 (Monograph). SDO136.

'Group (64): Deverel Down and Chescombe (Milborne St. Andrew and Winterborne Whitechurch). Traces of 'Celtic' fields, mostly ploughed and in some cases disturbed by quarrying, occur over about 120 acres of undulating land, generally divided by N.-S. coombes, from a southern point at the extreme E. of Milborne parish, SY 823979, northwards across Deverel Down, almost to the road S. of Chescombe Farm, Winterborne Whitechurch, ST 826001—SY 833999. All the fields are on Upper Chalk, with patches of Clay-with-flints, between about 230 ft. and 400 ft. O.D. It is probable that they linked up with those on Roke and Bere Downs (Dorset II, Group (30)) and also continued in all directions. No certainly complete field survives, nor can the relationship of fields to the Deverel barrow, or the nature of a 'parcel' of enclosed strip divisions, be determined. Lynchets range from a recorded 1 ft. high on Deverel Down to 8 ft. S. of Chescombe Farm.

The Deverel barrow (Milborne (30)) lay near the corner of a 'Celtic' field and its remains are now some 50 ft. from the ploughed-down field edges. It is impossible to be sure of the chronological relationship. W. A. Miles noted in 1826 that the barrow stood on 'a sort of step to the plateau' (Deverel Barrow, 17), and his account, coupled with the present aspect, perhaps implies that the barrow was built in the corner of a field.

N. of Longthorns (825993), on ground falling gently N. above the shoulder of a shallow combe, air photographs show a block of six or seven parallel strips, bounded by ditches or furrows, within an incomplete enclosure about 170 yds. by 130 yds. cut by the parish boundary between Winterborne Whitechurch and Milborne (plan, p. 321; cf. Groups (38) (iii) and (66)).

A terrace-way or double-lynchet track, traceable for 3/5 mile roughly parallel with and just S. of the present road past Chescombe Farm, is earlier than enclosure and also earlier than an old road running S. from Chescombe, but its relationship to 'Celtic' field remains is uncertain because of disturbance.

Air photographs: CPE/UK 1934: 2117–8 and 5117–8; 1974: 2353–5.'

<2> National Record of the Historic Environment, 455864? (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Mar 23 2023 10:39AM