Monument record MDO5021 - Dyke on Rawston Down, Tarrant Keyneston

A linear earthwork from the north side of Rawston Down past the north west corner of Buzbury Rings and along the parish boundary between Langton Long Blandford and Tarrant Keynston parishes. Where best preserved, it is a ditch up to five metres wide and one metre deep, with banks on either side. The record for this monument has been enhanced with support from Wessex Water. The linear earthwork is visible as earthworks on aerial photographs and Environment Agency lidar imagery and was digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM Project.

Part of a ridgeway running from Iwerne Minster to the River Stour. <2>

A disused and apparently unmetalled track is now grass covered or ploughed. The parish boundary which follows it provides the main evidence of age but it seems probable that this track was no more than a drove road of doubtful antiquity. From ST 91510575 to ST 92070632 the earthwork is still visible as a slightly bivallate ditch at the NE extremity, but where it passes Buzbury it has been destroyed, and where it reappears well to the SW of Buzbury it is not a ditch but a wide disused track between modern banks or following modern field boundaries. <3> <5>

Linear Dyke ST 921064 traceable for 1,000 yds. From the N. side of Rawston Down, Tarrant Rawston, continues past the N.W. corner of Buzbury Rings and along the parish boundary between Langton Long Blandford and Tarrant Keyneston. Where best preserved, on the golf-course, it comprises a ditch 10 ft. to 15 ft. wide and 3 ft. deep, with low banks on either side. West of the Blanford-Wimborne road, along the edge of Buzbury Plantation, a bank exists only on the N. side, and the ditch has for long been occupied by a track; in this section the dyke deviates slightly to avoid a round barrow (MDO5138).

S.W. of Buzbury Plantation the line of the dyke continues as a slightly hollowed terrace above 'Celtic' fields, which have been almost entirely destroyed by cultivation. <4>

The linear earthwork is visible as earthworks on aerial photographs <5-6> and Environment Agency lidar imagery <7>. It comprises an inner ditch and outer banks and extends for over 2km on a southwest -northeast alignment, passing along the northwest side of Buzbury Rings (MDO5018). For some sections, only one outer bank or the ditched trackway survives, other sections are near complete. The parish boundary between Tarrant Keyneston and Langton Long Blandford parishes follows the line of the earthwork for part of its length. Towards the southern end the earthwork possibly makes a short dogleg east then southwest again and the parish boundary line also follows this line. The feature was digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM Project.

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 1 Inch to 1 mile, 6th edition (Map). SDO17506.

(ST 90100416-ST 91840615) Ancient Trackway (NR)

<2> Grundy, G B, 1938, The ancient highways of Dorset, Somerset, and south-west England. Part II; The Archaeological Journal, Volume 95, pp 174-222 (Article in serial). SWX7480.

<3> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, F1 NVQ 10-DEC-55 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<4> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1972, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume IV (North), 104 (Monograph). SDO99.

'Five Linear Ditches lie in the vicinity of Buzbury Rings and extend into the adjacent parishes of Langton Long Blandford, Tarrant Monkton and Tarrant Rawston. Their full extent is no longer clearly visible on the ground, it but can be traced on air photographs (R.A.F. CPE/UK 1893: 3067-8). Together with Buzbury Rings, ‘ Celtic ‘ fields of Group (70), and later tracks, they comprise a complex of earthworks which recent destruction by cultivation makes difficult to interpret satisfactorily… (18) Linear Dyke (921064), traceable for 1,000 yds. from the N. side of Rawston Down, Tarrant Rawstone, continues past the N.W. corner of Buzbury Rings and along the parish boundary between Langton Long Blandford and Tarrant Keyneston. Where best preserved, on the golf-course, it comprises a ditch 10 ft. to 15 ft. wide and 3 ft. deep, with low banks on either side. West of the Blandford-Wimborne road, along the edge of Buzbury Plantation, a bank exists only on the N. side, and the ditch has for long been occupied by a track ; in this section the dyke deviates slightly to avoid a round barrow (Langton Long Blandford (13)). S.W. of Buzbury Plantation the line of the dyke continues as a slightly hollowed terrace above 'Celtic' fields, which have been almost entirely destroyed by culivation.'

<5> Royal Air Force, 01-JAN-1948, RAF/CPE/UK/2431 3319 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18502.

<6> Royal Air Force, 01-JAN-1948, RAF/CPE/UK/2431 RS 4318 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18474.

<7> Environment Agency, 16-NOV-2021, LIDAR Environment Agency DTM (Aerial Photograph). SDO18034.

<8> National Record of the Historic Environment, 209364 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Aug 8 2023 11:34AM