Monument record MDO44554 - Late prehistoric cross dyke, Tarrant Launceston

Linear banked and ditched features associated with a late prehistoric linear earthwork or trackway are visible as cropmarks and earthworks to the northwest of Tarrant Launceston on aerial photographs and Environment Agency lidar imagery. The features were digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM project.

A later Prehistoric linear dyke is visible as earthworks and cropmarks on aerial photographs. The site is centred at ST 9336 0950 and comprises parallel linear banks and ditches which extend roughly WSW / ENE over a total distance of 1140m, between ST 9282 0927 and ST 9381 0980. The westernmost 100m are earthworks due to their location within the bounds of Blandford Camp and are marked as a "dyke" on the 1887 Ordnance Survey map. The remaining length is visible as soilmarks in arable fields and comprises two, and in places three, parallel and slightly sinuous linear ditches.

The dyke extends up the ridge from the River Tarrant in the east. It extends to the south of a possible later Prehistoric settlement (see ST 90 NW 174 / UID: 1481077) and separate field system (ST 90 NW 177 / UID: 1481105) and overlaps with a similar linear dyke or trackway at ST 9344 0956 (ST 90 NW 175 / UID: 1481081). The cropmark pattern is further complicated by the wear and tear of the annual Dorset Steam Fair which is held in these fields; for example on aerial photographs taken in 1999. <1>

Linear banked and ditched features associated with a late prehistoric linear earthwork or cross dyke are visible as cropmarks and earthworks to the northwest of Tarrant Launceston on aerial photographs and Environment Agency lidar imagery <2-6>. The earthworks comprise broken sections of an inner ditch with flanking banks running northeast to southwest over a distance of over 1.2km. The earthworks cross, or are crossed by, a field system (MDO445530 of uncertain date and the relationship between these two sites remains uncertain. At it south western end the earthworks extend into the area of Blandford Camp and towards the site of a Romano-British settlement (MDO5040). The south western section of earthworks are recorded on the OS 1st Edition map <7>, which also records earthworks associated with the Romano-British settlement.
The features were digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM project.

<1> Bishop, Sharon, 2009, Tarrant Launceston 15 & Environs. Aerial Photograph Survey & Analysis (Unpublished document). SDO12459.

<1.1> Royal Air Force, 18-NOV-1946, RAF/CPE/UK/1845 4062-4063 (Aerial Photograph). SDO19275.

<1.2> Boyden, J R, 25-MAR-1970, NMR ST 9309/5 JRB 9724/ORACLEF15 (Aerial Photograph). SDO19271.

<1.3> 13-OCT-1999, NMR ST 9309/17 NMR 18595/01 (Aerial Photograph). SDO19274.

<1.4> 13-OCT-1999, NMR ST 9309/21-22 NMR 18458/07-08 (Aerial Photograph). SDO19273.

<2> Environment Agency, 16-NOV-2021, LIDAR Environment Agency DTM (Aerial Photograph). SDO18034.

<3> National Monuments Record, 13-OCT-1999, NMR 18458/07 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18038.

<4> Royal Air Force, 17-JAN-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1934 FS 2153 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18613.

<5> Professor P J Jones, 01-APR-1966, PJF 11361/ORACLE15 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18696.

<6> John Boyden, 08-JUL-1976, JRB 3306/6 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18697.

<7> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1481067 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

<7> Ordnance Survey, 1864, 1886, Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, epoch one (Map). SDO10239.

Record last edited

Oct 16 2023 9:23AM