Monument record MDO44561 - Possible Iron Age/Roman settlement, Tarrant Monkton

A concentration of ditched hollows and curvilinear enclosures are visible as cropmarks to the east of Blandford Camp, Tarrant Monkton, on aerial photographs. The features may be associated with a small later prehistoric settlement. The features are located within a wider field system (MDO44560) of potentially Iron Age to Roman date, as well as a banjo enclosure (MDO42508) of probable Iron Age date, just over 250m to the west. The features were digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM project.

A concentration of ditched hollows and curvilinear enclosures are visible as cropmarks to the east of Blandford Camp, Tarrant Monkton, on aerial photographs [1, 2]. The features appear to comprise two sub-oval enclosures approximatgely 50m across, closely adjacent to each other and interlinked with a small rectilinear enclosure roughly 30m by 40m in size. Just 40m to the north is a further 38m by 20m sub-oval enclosure, with a small crescent-shaped enclosure adjacent to its northwest side. Several sub-oval and sub-circular hollows, between 10m and 16m in diameter are visible both within the group of three enclosures, and outside to the east. Whether these features are contemporary and associated with the group of enclosures, or later, perhaps post medieval chalk pits, or even features of geological origin, for example, is uncertain. It is possible the features combine to represent a small later prehistoric settlement - possibly of Iron Age to Roman date. Two features to the southeast of the site, however, may be Bronze Age barrows (MDO44564; MDO44565), which may indicate a potentially earlier origin for a settlement here.

The features are located within a wider field system (MDO44560), also potentially of Iron Age to Roman date, as well as a banjo enclosure (MDO42508) of probable Iron Age date just over 250m to the west. The features were digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM project.

<1> John Boyden, 12-JUN-1971, JRB 373/4899 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18706.

<2> National Monuments Record, 04-SEP-1995, NMR 15397/17 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18710.

Record last edited

Oct 24 2022 2:46PM