Monument record MDO43833 - Iron Age or Romano-British enclosure and settlement south east of High Wood, Pamphill

A large sub-rectangular ditched enclosure with smaller internal enclosures abutting it's northern side is visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs to the south east of High Wood, Pamphill. It is part of a wider complex of crop and soil marks of enclosures and ditches covering an area over half a mile long, and cut by the Roman road from Badbury Rings to Hamworthy (MDO5868 and MDO43946). The features were digitally recorded during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM project.

A large sub-rectangular ditched enclosure with smaller internal enclosures abutting it's northern side is visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs to the south east of High Wood, Pamphill. The enclosure is at least 645m long (NE-SW) and 430m wide (SW-NE) and cut by the Roman road. The remains of two, possibly three, internal rectilinear ditched enclosures are visible on the north east side, the most complete being the eastern of the three which is 58m by 55m in dimension.

It is part of a wider complex of crop and soil marks of enclosures and ditches covering an area over half a mile long, and cut by the Roman road from Badbury Rings to Hamworthy (MDO5868 and MDO43946).

The features were digitally recorded during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM project.

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), 52 (Monograph). SDO129.

'(72) ENCLOSURES AND DITCHES (973031-969024), S.E. of High Wood, probably the remains of an Iron Age or Romano-British settlement, lie ¼ mile E. of Badbury Rings. The remains, occupying a S.E. slope between 175 ft. and 250 ft. above O.D., extend for nearly ½ mile from N.E. to S.W. They are levelled by ploughing, but are seen on air photographs (C.U.A.P., XZ 21-2; AUP 44; AHT 70. N.M.R., ST 9702/2/150-6; ST 9702/3/148-9; ST 9602/1). A roughly rectangular enclosure, some 450 ft. by 400 ft., is oriented N.W.-S.E. and has slightly bowed long sides and an entrance in the S.W. side (Plate 55). Immediately to the W. are a series of smaller rectangular enclosures. To the N. are traces of a curving ditch and to the S.W. are traces of further enclosures and ditches, some of them cut by the Roman road from Badbury Rings to Hamworthy.'

<2> National Monuments Record, 04-SEP-1995, NMR 15397/41 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18081.

<3> National Monuments Record, 02-AUG-1974, NMR 772/150-156 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18082.

Record last edited

Oct 3 2023 12:48PM