Monument record MDO5005 - Racecourse on Blandford Race Down

A curvilinear banked feature visible as an earthwork on Blandford Down on a 1928 aerial photograph may be part of the former post medieval racecourse. The feature forms a curving line from west to east then curves north, the total distance visible being just over 1km. The feature was digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM project.

Depicted as an earthwork on earlier Ordnance Survey maps but no traces visible when visited in 1995. <1>

Also DSMR 2 061 044

A curvilinear banked feature visible as an earthwork on Blandford Down on a 1928 aerial photograph may be part of the former post medieval racecourse [2]. The feature forms a curving line from west to east then curves north, the total distance visible being just over 1km. The feature was digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM project.

<1> Cox, P W and Chandler, J, 1995, A Preliminary Archaeological Assessment of Proposed Works at Blandford Army Camp, Dorset: New Northern Perimeter Fence and Playing Fields, Site 13 (Unpublished document). SDO13904.

'Horse-racing on the downs, presumably in the area later in use to the south of the site, may have begun before the 17th century. There are references to races in 1603, 1616, 1729 and from 1744, although racing was discontinued in 1843 (Hutchins, 1861, p.215). The use of the area for racing implies, of course, that it was unenclosed downland throughout the period c.1600-c.1840.'

<2> Crawford, O G S, 17-JUL-1928, CCC 8837/422 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18897.

Record last edited

Nov 1 2024 2:06PM