Monument record MDO45293 - Possible post medieval trackways, Abbeycroft Down,Tarrant Rushton

Linear ditched features are visible as cropmarks on a 2002 aerial photograph, on Abbeycroft Down, Tarrant Rushton. The features are of uncertain origin but may be trackways of potentially post medieval date. They form part of a group of features recorded under NRHE Hob UID 1403297. They were digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM project.

A ring ditch and other features are visible as cropmarks on air photographs taken April 15th 2002. There appear to be faint ditches passing either side of the ring ditch, while other features in the vicinity may represent field boundaries or enclosures. <1, 4>

Linear ditched features are visible as cropmarks on a 2002 aerial photograph, on Abbeycroft Down, Tarrant Rushton [1]. The features comprise two broken rows of narrow parallel linear ditches 15-20m apart and crossing Abbeycroft Down from broadly southeast to northwest for a distance of approximately 260m. The features appear to run either side of a possible Bronze Age round barrow (MDO45291) and overlie part of a possible later prehistoric enclosure or field boundaries, suggesting they may be later in origin. Some of the features may correlate with linear earthworks visible on a 1946 aerial photograph, which may be trackways [2]. These are cut by later trackways recorded on the OS 1st Edition map [3]. At their northern end one section of linear ditch appears to cross a rectilinear hollow, possibly a post medieval extractive pit (MDO45294).

The features are of uncertain origin but may be trackways of potentially medieval to post medieval date. They form part of a group of features recorded under NRHE Hob UID 1403297. They were digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM project.

<1> National Monuments Record, 15-APR-2002, NMR 21628/01 (ST9505/0007) (Aerial Photograph). SDO19207.

<2> Royal Air Force, 12-DEC-1946, RAF/CPE/UK/1893 RS 4071 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18567.

<3> Ordnance Survey, 1864, 1886, Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, epoch one (Map). SDO10239.

<4> Barber, M, RCHME/EH/HE Aerial photograph interpreter's comments (Verbal communication). SDO18427.

<5> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1403297 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jan 30 2023 12:37PM