Monument record MDO4800 - Enclosure at Parsonage Farm, Stourpaine

A rectangular enclosure lies on the south side of the moated enclosure at Parsonage Farm, Stourpaine. It survives as a low earthwork on the south and east sides. The west side is no longer visible. A circular earthwork, described as a 'cockpit' survives in the northern part of this enclosure. It is visible as earthworks on lidar imagery and was digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM Project. The record for this monument has been enhanced with support from Wessex Water.

The first edition 25-inch Ordnance Survey map shows the bank and ditch along the south side of the enclosure and a scarp forming a return along the west side. The east side appears to have a lane or track running along the line of the ditch. At the northern end is a straight length of bank which adjoins the south east corner of the moat. <1>

The remains of a rectangular enclosure adjoining the south side of the moated enclosure at Parsonage Farm, Stourpaine survive as a low spread bank with an external ditch along the south side. The western side is not traceable on the ground but is shown on the first edition of the 25-inch Ordnance Survey map and may have been destroyed when the railway was constructed next to it in 1863. A roughly circular earthwork described by Hutchins (I, 305) as a 'Cockpit' lies in the northern part of this enclosure against the south side of the moat. <2>

The rectangular enclosure is visible as earthworks on lidar imagery [3] and was digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM Project.

<1> Ordnance Survey, 1864, 1886, Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, epoch one (Map). SDO10239.

<2> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 2, 262 (Monograph). SDO136.

‘(9) MOAT AND ENCLOSURE (860093), lie S. of Stourpaine Church, near the place where the Iwerne joins the Stour.
The moat (class A2(b)), (fn. 2) formerly with a wet ditch surrounding a rectangular island, occupies the N. third of the site. The N. side and the N. third of the E. side are almost completely filled in and their alignment is only marked by a scarp, 2½ ft. to 3 ft. high, along the edges of the island. The rest of the E. side and all of the S. and W. sides are bounded by a deep wide ditch, now dry. A pond covers the N.W. corner. An external bank about 1 ft. high occurs along the W. side. The interior of the island is flat and has no features apart from a modern spoil heap in the S.E. corner; no entrance or causeway is visible.
Adjoining the S. side of the moat are the remains of a rectangular banked enclosure of about 2 acres. It is bounded on the E. by a low spread bank and on the S. by a bank 3 ft. high, with an external ditch. The W. side is no longer traceable on the ground but the 1st edition of the 25-in. O.S. map shows about 50 yds. of bank at the S. end; it probably was destroyed in 1863 when the railway was built (B.M. Add. MS. 37784, nos. 50, 62). At the N. end of the enclosure, and lying against the S. side of the moat, is an earthwork which Hutchins (I, 305) describes as a 'Cockpit'. It is a roughly circular area with an internal diameter of about 100 ft. bounded by a low bank and an external ditch. There is a gap in the N.W. part of the bank. This earthwork is certainly of later date than the moat.’

<3> Environment Agency, 16-NOV-2021, LIDAR Environment Agency DTM (Aerial Photograph). SDO18034.

Record last edited

Aug 23 2024 3:06PM