Monument record MDO5043 - Dyke, Tarrant Launceston

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1972, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume IV (North), 106 (Monograph). SDO99.

‘(16) Linear Dykes, on Launceston Down in the extreme N.E. of the parish, lie between 200 ft. and 350 ft. above O.D. on the summit and on the E. slopes of the Chalk ridge between the Tarrant and the Crichel brooks. The dykes have been almost totally levelled by cultivation since 1947.
A dyke beginning in Tarrant Hinton parish (94811126) runs approximately W.S.W.-E.N.E. in a sinuous course for just over one mile across Launceston Down; it is lost in Long Crichel parish at 96251150. The dyke formerly consisted of a ditch with a low bank along its N. side and measured about 35 ft. across overall. At a sharp change of direction near the middle of its course (95611123) the earthwork bifurcates, a short length which extends almost due W. for 100 yds. suggesting two phases of construction. At the W. end the dyke appears to cross an earlier dyke which follows the parish boundary with Tarrant Hinton. The earlier dyke consists of a ditch with traces of a bank on the S. side, measuring about 35 ft. across overall; it extends across the ridge-top, from 95031115 in the N.E. at least as far as 94661094, a distance of nearly 350 yds.; possibly it continued further S.W. It is also possible that a third dyke extended S.W., from a junction with the first mentioned dyke at 94851120, towards the W. end of the second dyke, but this last named earthwork could be no more than a bank formed by trackways. (Sumner, Cranborne Chase, 35–7, pl. xvi A.).’

Record last edited

Nov 11 2024 3:58PM