Monument record MDO4530 - Cross dyke on Okeford Hill, Okeford Fitzpaine

A cross-dyke running across a spur. In 1970 this monument was reported as visible as slight bank and depression, though much ploughed. The feature is visible as low broken banked and ditched earthworks on aerial photographs and current Environment Agency lidar imagery and was digitally plotted during the Mid Dorset Downs AIM project.

ST 81060965 to ST 81280979. Cross dyke runs from W.S.W. to E.N.E. across a spur, at just over 600 ft. above O.D., at the foot of a steep slope which drops northwards from the Chalk escarpment. It has been ploughed almost completely flat except for a short length at the E. end, where a bank 2 ft. high lies on the N. or downhill side of a slight depression. Its original length was about 300 yds. It was perhaps a trackway, formerly linking with Pound Lane. <2>.

The feature is visible as low broken banked and ditched earthworks on aerial photographs and current Environment Agency lidar imagery (RAF 1947; NMR 2005; EA 2018). The feature as visible on these sources appears to extend for around 415m and is cut at its eastern end by a later trackway. At the western end the feature is just discernable as very broken eathworks cut by a series of later trackways, almost indistinguishable but enough to indicate the feature continued to the west of the road. The eastern end appears slightly offset where the now parish boundary crosses it. Later prehistoric to medieval field systems lie adjacent to the cross dyke on both sides and potentially respect the feature. It was digitally plotted during the Mid Dorset Downs AIM project.

Royal Air Force, 17-JAN-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1934 RS 4169 (Aerial Photograph). SDO21600.

National Monuments Record, 24-JAN-2005, NMR 23782/6 (Aerial Photograph). SDO21613.

Environment Agency, xx-xxx-2018, Environment Agency National Lidar Programme DTM 1M (Aerial Photograph). SDO21483.

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey map 1:10,560, 1968 (Map). SDO18658.

(ST 81140970 to ST 81280978) Earthwork

<2> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 2, 207 (Monograph). SDO136.

‘(41) Cross-dyke (80160965-81280979), runs from W.S.W. to E.N.E. across a spur, at just over 600 ft. above O.D., at the foot of a steep slope which drops northwards from the Chalk escarpment. It has been ploughed almost completely flat except for a short length at the E. end, where a bank 2 ft. high lies on the N. or downhill side of a slight depression. Its original length was about 300 yds. It was perhaps a trackway, formerly linking with Pound Lane.’

<3> DCMS, 1999, Scheduled Monument Notification 1999, 07-JUL-1999 (Scheduling record). SDO17351.

<4> Historic England, Historic England Archive, RCH01/096 (Index). SDO14738.

RCHME Inventory: Dorset III (Central): A large collection of archive relating to the RCHME Dorset Inventory Volume III, published in 1970. It contains field surveys and excavation archive. Parish files containing original surveys have been given child collection status.

<5> National Record of the Historic Environment, 205544 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Dec 29 2025 10:46AM