Monument record MDO5132 - Medieval settlement remains, Tarrant Rawston

Settlement remains on the west bank of the River Tarrant, comprising at least eight closes bounded by low banks and well-defined building platforms. The record for this monument has been enhanced with support from Wessex Water. Low linear banked features are also visible as earthworks on 1940s aerial photographs and Environment Agency lidar imagery and were digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM project.

Low linear banked and ditched features are also visible as earthworks on 1940s aerial photographs, Google Earth and Environment Agency lidar imagery <3-5>. The features comprise narrow linear banks and ditches on a broadly east-west alignement, forming several small sub-rectangular closes with possible pathways in between. Some linear earthworks on a comparable alignment are also visible on the easst side of the main road and may be another area of shrunken settlement - although it is possible these are alternatively associated with part of a post medieval water meadow here (MDO43824).

A wide linear banked earthwork is visible underlying the area of shrunken settlement on current lidar imagery <3>. The feature has the same character as a further series of banked linear earthworks on a similar axis, located in the fields adjacent to the west of the shrunken settlement. The character of these earthworks suggest a potentially late prehistoric origin, perhaps part of a Bronze Age/Late Iron Age field system (MDO5144), which the shrunken medieval settlement may partially overlie.

The features were 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), 111 (Monograph). SDO99.

'(3) Settlement Remains (937064), formerly part of Rawston village, lie S.W. of (2) on the W. bank of the Tarrant. They comprise at least eight closes, up to 60 yds. long and 30 yds. wide, bounded by low banks. Well-defined building platforms, up to 40 ft. by 25 ft., are cut back into the slope at the S.E. ends of the closes.'

<2> Good, R, 1979, Lost Villages of Dorset, 74 (Monograph). SWX1569.

<3> Environment Agency, 16-NOV-2021, LIDAR Environment Agency DTM (Aerial Photograph). SDO18034.

<4> Royal Air Force, 01-JAN-1948, RAF/CPE/UK/2431 RS 4316 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18057.

<5> Google Earth, 2014, Google Earth 2014 (Aerial Photograph). SDO15450.

<6> National Record of the Historic Environment, 209463 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jan 10 2023 4:29PM