Monument record MDO5104 - Shrunken village, Tarrant Monkton

Medieval settlement remains on the east side of High Street, now almost completely destroyed. Early Ordnance Survey maps show cottages surviving in some of the closes in the early nineteenth century. The record for this monument has been enhanced with support from Wessex Water. Linear banked and ditched features are visible as earthworks on 1940s aerial photographs and Environment Agency lidar imagery and were digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM project.

SETTLEMENT REMAINS 947089 on the E. side of High Street Tarrant Monkton now almost entirely destroyed, comprise seven or more long closes at right-angles to the street with traces of house platforms at the upper ends. Some of the sites still had cottages in the early 19th century. <1>

Part of the medieval and/or post-medieval settlement of Tarrant Monkton is visible as earthworks on the aerial photographs listed as source 1. The site is centred at ST 9466 0890 and comprises a series of roughly parallel linear banks and ditches which appear to define the sides of at least seven housing plots, or tofts, that extend perpendicular to and to the west of the High Street (not to its east as source 3 states). The banks and ditches each measure a maximum of 68m long and define one or more sides of housing plots measuring between 24m and 30m wide. They extend over a total area that measures 290m long by 80m wide. <2>

Linear banked and ditched features are visible as earthworks on 1940s aerial photographs and Environment Agency lidar imagery and were digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM project <3, 4>.

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1972, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume IV (North), 109 (Monograph). SDO99.

'(19) Settlement Remains (947089), on the E. side of High Street, now almost entirely destroyed, comprise seven or more long closes at right-angles to the street, with traces of house platforms at the upper ends (R.A.F., V.A.P., CPE/UK 1934 : 5151). Some of the sites still had cottages in the early 19th century (O.S., 1811).'

<2> Bishop, Sharon, 2009, Tarrant Launceston 15 & Environs. Aerial Photograph Survey & Analysis (Unpublished document). SDO12459.

<3> Royal Air Force, 17-JAN-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1934 V 5151 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18053.

<4> Environment Agency, 16-NOV-2021, LIDAR Environment Agency DTM (Aerial Photograph). SDO18034.

<5> National Record of the Historic Environment, 209443 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Aug 30 2024 10:41AM