Monument record MDO5106 - Cross dyke, Tarrant Monkton

Some two hundred metres of linear earthwork aligned WNW - ESE on the south west edge of Blandford Camp. The RCHME record this as a low bank some 12 feet across and 1.5 feet high with a corresponding ditch 12 feet wide and 2 feet deep on its north side. Most likely to be prehistoric, and probably Iron Age in date. The record for this monument has been enhanced with support from Wessex Water. The feature is visible as cropmarks and earthworks on 1940s aerial photographs and Environment Agency lidar imagery and was digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM Project.

Some two hundred metres of linear earthwork aligned WNW - ESE on the south west edge of Blandford Camp. The RCHME record this as a low bank some 12 feet across and 1.5 feet high with a corresponding ditch 12 feet wide and 2 feet deep on its north side. Most likely to be prehistoric, and probably Iron Age in date.
The record for this monument has been enhanced with support from Wessex Water.

The feature is visible as cropmarks and earthworks on 1940s aerial photographs and on Environment Agency lidar imagery [3, 4]. An aerial photograph dated 1948 shows the earthwork comprising of outer banks and an inner ditch, just over 215m in length [3]. Two faint linear cropmarks in a field to the west of these may indicate a continuation of the earthwork but lidar imagery suggests this may now be completely ploughd out [4]. Lidar imagery also indicates the potential survival of the outer banks at the eastern end of the feature, but evaluation has suggested only the inner ditch survives to any great extent (see MDO42773). The feature was digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM Project.

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

'(21) Dyke, on the S.W. edge of Blandford Camp, runs W.N.W. to E.S.E. (91240755-91410752) for some 200 yds. across the top of a N.-S. Chalk ridge, at over 350 ft. above O.D. The W. end lies in Langton Long Blandford and it has been much disturbed by tracks and roads and by trees growing on it. The bank is 12 ft. across and up to 1½ ft. high with a ditch on its N. side 12 ft. across and 2 ft. deep.'

<2> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1994, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1993, 115 (Serial). SDO93.

'Blandford Camp. An evaluation of the line of a ploughed-out linear earthwork at the entrance to Blandford Camp (ST 91350755) demonstrated that the only element which survived was the ditch, the upper levels of which contained much modern debris. Subsequent observation of topsoil stripping for the construction of a turning area exposed a length of the ditch together with a parallel line of regularly-spaced postholes. Although sample excavation failed to produce dating evidence for either the ditch or the postholes their shared alignment may demonstrate a degree of contemporaneity.'

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

<5> Royal Air Force, 01-JAN-1948, RAF/CPE/UK/2431 RS 4320 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18501.

Record last edited

Sep 29 2022 2:12PM