Monument record MDO5023 - Linear earthwork, south of Buzbury Rings, Tarrant Keyneston

A linear earthwork runs southwest from Buzbury Rings along the crest of a broad spur and obliquely down its south side. It comprises a ditch with banks on either side but is largely flattened by ploughing. Air photographs suggest that it is contemporary with or earlier than 'Celtic' fields in the area. 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.

A linear earthwork, some 600 yds long, runs SW from Buzbury Rings along the crest of a broad spur and obliquely down its S side to ST 91490532. It now is much ploughed, but formerly, where best preserved, it comprised a ditch 35 ft wide and 2 ft deep, with traces of low banks on either side. Near Buzbury Rings the earthwork divides into two branches which appear to cut the linear earthwork (ST 90 NW 14) and which are probably due to its use as a track. Air photographs suggest that it is contemporary with or earlier than 'Celtic' fields in the area, but the remains are too much damaged for the relationship to be certain. <2>

Air photographs show that the earthwork continues from ST 91460533 to ST 91340507. A rapid examination of air photography suggests that although the earthwork is a single ditch just south of Buzbury Rings, further south, it once more divides into two ditches with traces of external banks. <4>

A linear earthwork runs southwest from Buzbury Rings along the crest of a broad spur and obliquely down its south side. It comprises a ditch with banks on either side but is largely flattened by ploughing. Air photographs suggest that it is contemporary with or earlier than 'Celtic' fields in the area.
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 <3, 5, 6>. It comprises an inner ditch and outer banks and extends for just under 750m on a southwest -northeast alignment, heading southwest from the southwest side of Buzbury Rings (MDO5018). The earthwork forks at its northeast end, to head north and east, skirting the outer edge of Buzbury Rings. The feature was digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM Project.

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

(ST 91720586-ST 91640574) 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… (20) Linear Earthworks, some 600 yds. Long, runs S.W. from Buzbury Rings along the crest of a broad spur and obliquely down its S. side to 91490532. It now is much ploughed, but formerly, where best preserved, it comprised a ditch 35 ft. wide and 2 ft. deep, with traces of low banks on either side. Near Buzbury Rings the earthwork divides into two branches which appear to cut (17) and which are probably due to its use as a track. Air photographs (N.M.R., ST 9106/4, ST 9205/2) suggest that it is contemporary with or earlier than 'Celtic' fields in the area, but the remains are too much damaged for the relationship to be certain.'

<2.1> National Monuments Record, NMR ST 9106/ 4 (Aerial Photograph). SDO19228.

<2.2> National Monuments Record, NMR ST 9205/2 (Aerial Photograph). SDO19229.

<3> Royal Air Force, 22-JAN-1948, RAF/CPE/UK/2431 3319-20 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17505.

<4> Miller, Andrew, RCHME/EH/HE Aerial Photographers comment AM, 01-FEB-1993 (Verbal communication). SDO17356.

<4.1> National Monuments Record, NMR 4350: 07-8, 10, 12-13 (Aerial Photograph). SDO19230.

<5> National Monuments Record, 21-FEB-2000, NMR 18718/11 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18582.

<6> Environment Agency, 16-NOV-2021, LIDAR Environment Agency DTM (Aerial Photograph). SDO18034.

<7> National Record of the Historic Environment, 209356 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jan 24 2023 6:53AM