Monument record MDO45728 - Prehistoric field system on Gussage Hill south of Down Farm, Gussage St Michael and Sixpenny Handley

Extensive traces of prehistoric fields visible as cropmarks on Gussage Hill south of Down Farm. The field system appears to be closely integrated with the equally extensive complex of linears and enclosures on Gussage Hill and associated monuments, and in places appears to utilise the earthworks of the Dorset Cursus, whose alignment the fields broadly share, as field boundaries. Much of the field system has been levelled by cultivation.

A field system centred at ST 997140. <1>

'Celtic' fields cover much of the top and flanks of the low ridge between the Gussage Brook and the headwaters of the River Allen. Much of the area was formerly downland pasture, but it is now extensively cultivated and most of the field remains have been levelled. <2>

On Gussage Hill the 'Celtic' fields, many of them irregular in shape, are clearly integrated with the Iron Age and Romano-British settlement (ST 91 SE 3) and immediately NE of it they make use of the earlier earthworks of the Dorset Cursus (SU 01 NW 91). Fields are also integrated with another enclosure (SU 01 SW 75). <3>

<1> Atkinson, R J C, Annotated record map: corr 6", 1949 (Map). SDO19531.

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), 118 (Monograph). SDO129.

<3> St Joseph, J K, J K St Joseph AD 30-1 (Aerial Photograph). SDO19530.

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

<5> Barrett, J, Bradley, R and Green, M, 1991, Landscape, Monuments and Society: the prehistory of Cranborne Chase, 227-242 (Monograph). SDO16633.

<6> National Record of the Historic Environment, 210018 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Feb 24 2023 12:22PM