Monument record MDO44546 - Late prehistoric field system and settlement, Blandford Down, Tarrant Hinton, Tarrant Launceston

Banked linear and curvilinear features are visible as earthworks in fields to the north of Blandford Camp, crossing Tarrant Hinton and Tarrant Launceston parishes, on Environment Agency lidar imagery. The features are considered likely to be an area of a later prehistoric field system, and possibly settlement, on Blandford Down, potentially of Iron Age to Roman date, although an earlier origin is possible. The features are potentially associated with a possible enclosure recorded under MDO37172. The features were digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM project.

'Celtic' fields, now almost entirely destroyed are visible on air photographs over much of the western parts of the parishes of Tarrant Hinton, Tarrant Launceston and Tarrant Monkton. They may once have been continuous and some were probably associated with the Iron Age/Romano-British settlement
(ST 90 NW 9). Very faint traces are visible between ST 919100 and ST 929097, and air photographs reveal traces around ST 931106. Remains, severely damaged survive within the area of the military camp on Race Down, at ST 918086. At ST 926080 air photographs show 'Celtic' fields of markedly rectangular and rather elongated form, measuring up to 60 yds across and 120 yds long, can be seen. Faint traces are visible extending E to the enclosures (ST 90 NW 57) and SE towards the 'Celtic' fields (ST 90 NW 37). <1-4> <5>

Banked linear and curvilinear features are visible as earthworks in fields to the north of Blandford Camp, crossing Tarrant Hinton and Tarrant Launceston parishes, on Environment Agency lidar imagery <6>. The features are considered likely to be an area of a later prehistoric field system, and possibly settlement, on Blandford Down, potentially of Iron Age to Roman date, although an earlier origin is possible. The features are potentially associated with a possible enclosure recorded under MDO37172. The features were digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM project.

<1> Crawford, O G S, 17-JUL-1928, Crawford 11 5 287-90 (Aerial Photograph). SDO19218.

<2> Royal Air Force, 20-APR-1953, RAF/F22 58/1090 88 (Aerial Photograph). SDO19217.

<3> Royal Air Force, 20-APR-1953, RAF/F21 58/1090 91 (Aerial Photograph). SDO19216.

<4> Royal Air Force, 14-AUG-1953, RAF/F21 58/1212 26 58 (Aerial Photograph). SDO19215.

<5> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1972, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume IV (North), 119 (Monograph). SDO99.

<6> Environment Agency, 16-NOV-2021, LIDAR Environment Agency DTM (Aerial Photograph). SDO18034.

<7> National Record of the Historic Environment, 209332 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jan 23 2023 3:48PM