Monument record MDO45063 - Trackway on Bottlebush Down, Wimborne St Giles

A ditch 11.5 metres wide and 2.0 metres deep has been shown to be an integral part of the later prehistoric or Roman field system on Bottlebush Down MDO6381 and appears to represent the course of a trackway.

(SU 02621560) Ditch (NR). <2>

A ditch extending from SU 02581557 to SU 02661565, up the slope of a ridge and ending just below the top where it spreads and fades. Average dimensions 11.5m wide by 2.0m deep, with a flat bottom 2.0m wide. This feature appears to have been a trackway connected with the surrounding Iron Age/Romano-British field system (SU 01 NW 80) [Note: ie MDO6381]. <1>

The ditch is shown by the Royal Commission as an integral part of the field system on Bottlebrush Down, extending south west to SU 02361534. Their reference to ploughed down lengths of bank and ditch, serving as boundaries between blocks of fields, may apply. <3-4>

<1> Swatridge, G C, Various, Field Investigators Comments GCS, F1 GCS 26-MAY-54 (Unpublished document). SWX1169.

<2> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1963 (Map). SWX1540.

<3> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), 101, 119, Celtic Fields Gp 85 (Monograph). SDO129.

<4> Bowen, H C, 1990, The Archaeology of Bokerley Dyke (Monograph). SWX800.

<5> National Record of the Historic Environment, 213573 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Dec 14 2022 2:58PM