Monument record MDO5022 - Linear dyke, Tarrant Keyneston

Linear dyke extending from Luton Down in Tarrant Monkton to a point south west of Buzbury Rings, in Langton Long Blandford parish. Its best preserved length comprises a ditch flanked by low spread banks and elsewhere it is ploughed out. At its southern end it is, bounded on both sides by contemporary or later 'Celtic' fields. The record for this monument has been enhanced with support from Wessex Water. The linear earthwork is visible as earthworks and cropmarks on aerial photographs and Environment Agency lidar imagery and was digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM Project.

A linear dyke, traceable for some 2,000 yds, extends from Luton Down in Tarrant Monkton (ST 921071) to point 800 yds SW of BUzbury Rings in Langton Long Blandford (ST 912055). Its S half is roughly parallel with the linear dyke (ST 90 NW 32).

NE of the Blandford to Wimborne Road, the dyke consists of a ditch 25 ft across and 3 ft deep, flanked by low spread banks. SW of Buzbury Plantation it is marked only by a scarp on the hillside, bounded on both sides by contemporary or later 'Celtic' fields. <2>

The linear dyke south-west of ST 91620620 has been destroyed by ploughing. <3>

The linear earthwork is visible as earthworks and cropmarks on aerial photographs and Environment Agency lidar imagery [5 - 7]. It comprises an inner ditch and outer banks and extends for almost 2km on a southwest -northeast alignment. Two perpendicular sections of ditched and banked earthworks extend from the east side of the linear earthwork towards the northwest side of Buzbury Rings (MDO5018), where they abut/adjoin the outer earthworks of this monument - these might be short cross dykes associated with the main linear earthwork/dyke, although they appear cohesive with the main feature. The feature was digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM Project.

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1938 (Map). SWX1540.

(ST 91580611 - ST 91840660) Ditch (NR)

<2> 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… (19) Linear Dyke, traceable for some 2,000 yds., extends from Luton Down in Tarrant Monkton, on the N. (921071), to a point 800 yds. S.W. of Buzbury Rings, in Langton Long Blandford (912055); its S. half is roughly parallel with (18). Where best preserved, N.E. of the Blandford-Wimborne road, the dyke consists of a ditch 25 ft. across and 3ft. deep, flanked by low spread banks. S.W. of Buzbury Plantation it is marked only by a scarp on the hillside, bounded on both sides by contemporary or later 'Celtic' fields.'

<2.1> Royal Air Force, 12-DEC-1946, RAF/CPE/UK/1893 3067-8 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17504.

<2.2> National Monuments Record, NMR ST 9105/1 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17499.

<3> Ordnance Survey, 1998, Ordnance Survey Small Scale Map Revisers Comment July 1998 (Unpublished document). SWX2728.

<4> National Record of the Historic Environment, 209452 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

<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 4320 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18501.

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

Record last edited

Oct 16 2023 10:00AM