Monument record MDO44395 - Dyke or boundary bank at Hlascumb, Nether Compton

It has been suggested that an earthwork bank and deep ditch running along the lower eastern side of a dry valley between Loscombe Cross and Bedmill may be the remains of a Saxon boundary fossilised in later field boundaries. King Athelstan granted lands in Bradford Abbas to the religious community in Sherborne in a charter of 933. A section of linear ditch with banks either side is visible as an earthwork on 2022 lidar imagery. The feature is fossilised by a later field boundary.

According to a charter of 933, King Athelston made a grant of lands in Bradford Abbas to the religious community in Sherborne. The charter describes part of the boundary of the area as a dyke along the Eastern edge of a valley called 'Hlascumb'. This is a dry valley lying between Loscombe Cross on the Yeovil Road and Bedmill on the Bradford Road. 'A deep ditch now the boundary between the Winchester College and Digley estate, running along the Eastern edge of the lower part of the valley in probabely a remnant of this dyke, preserved as an important estate boundary until the present day. The dyke itself has a bank on both sides of a wide and dep ditch. (It could have been utilised as a park boundary in the Medieval periods. See ST 51 NE 39. The position of the dyke is indicated in fig. 3 of Auth. 1). <1>

(ST 595157. Sited from fig. 3 of Auth.1 and OS 10000 1977). <2>

A section of linear ditch with banks either side is visible as an earthwork on 2022 lidar imagery. The feature is fossilised by a later field boundary (EA 2022)

Environment Agency, 2022, LiDAR Composite Viewer - Digital Terrain Model 1m (Aerial Photograph). SDO21777.

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1971, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1970, 208-9, fig.3 (Serial). SDO70.

<1.1> Fowler, J, 1951, Mediaeval Sherborne (Monograph). SDO10392.

<2> Historic England, National Record of the Historic Environment, 883002 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

<2.1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey 1:10,000 scale map, 1977 (Map). SDO17396.

Record last edited

Aug 27 2026 4:30PM