Monument record MDO5181 - Prehistoric field system on Ringmoor, Turnworth

Extensive remains of a 'celtic' field system plus later strip lynchets and ridge and furrow. Part of an extensive later prehistoric field system on Ringmoor is visible as earthworks and soilmarks on 1940s aerial photographs and current Environment Agency lidar imagery. Amongst the later prehistoric features are later elements of a medieval field system, including strip lynchets and ridge and furrow. The features were digitally plotted during the Mid Dorset Downs AIM project.

(Centred ST 814085) Field Systems. <1>

Some 30 acres of Iron Age/Romano-British 'Celtic' fields lie around the contemporary native settlement (ST 80: NW 12) on Ringmoor and formerly extended in all directions; they lie between 700ft and 800ft above OD. There has been some destruction of field sides by ploughing at an unknown date, so that most of the remaining fields, on plan, are much bigger than they were originally. Lynchets are from 2ft to 6ft in height. 'Celtic' fields also survive in much broken and altered form within some 60 acres on Turnworth Down and The Cliff, on valley sides generally facing south.

On the north, a lynchet 7ft high extends along the north side of a winter bourne at ST 810089; other lynchets in pasture to the east are 3ft to 15ft high and are occasionally defaced by shallow quarrying. Many lesser divisions have been at some time ploughed away, though banks 12ft wide and 1ft high survive, running down the slope about 813090. North of this area the fields seem to stop short of the sand-and-gravel capped E-W ridge at about 810090. East of the present road, around 817087, a further broken pattern of large lynchets on the same geneal alignment, occurs in pasture on slopes of up to 15o. The pattern on the upper slopes and in arable land to the east suggests the proximity of settlement.

To the south strip lynchets and ridge-and-furrow on the Cliff (ST 80 NW 40) overlie 'Celtic' field remains about 818083. There are further greatly disturbed traces south of Turnworth House, 816080. (See ST 80 NW 43). <2>

Part of an extensive later prehistoric field system on Ringmoor is visible as earthworks and soilmarks on 1940s aerial photographs and current Environment Agency lidar imagery (RAF 1947; RAF 1947; EA 2018). The field system surrounds a later prehistoric settlement (MDO5180) and the precise relationship between the two areas in terms of extent or contemporaneity is not entirely clear pfrom available aerial sources. Amongst the later prehistoric features are later elements of a medieval field system, including strip lynchets and ridge and furrow; these were not always easy to distinguish from the earlier field system on available aerial sources. The features were digitally plotted during the Mid Dorset Downs AIM project.

Royal Air Force, 11-APR-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1975 RS 4025 (Aerial Photograph). SDO21601.

Royal Air Force, 17-JAN-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1934 RS 4169 (Aerial Photograph). SDO21600.

Environment Agency, xx-xxx-2018, Environment Agency National Lidar Programme DTM 1M (Aerial Photograph). SDO21483.

<1> Atkinson, R J C, Annotated record map: corr 6" (Map). SDO19531.

<2> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 2, 339 (Monograph). SDO136.

‘GROUP (55): RINGMOOR (Turnworth). Some 30 acres of ‘Celtic’ fields lie around the contemporary native settlement Turnworth (7) on Ringmoor (ST 809085) (see plan facing p. 291) and formerly extended in all directions. They lie between 700 ft. and 800 ft. above O.D., entirely on Clay-with-flints. On the N. the group is bounded by a winter bourne, beyond which are further ‘Celtic’ fields (Group (56)). There has been some destruction of field sides by ploughing at an unknown date, so that most of the remaining fields, on plan, are much bigger than they were originally. Lynchets are from 2 ft. to 6 ft. in height.’

<3> Royal Air Force, 17-JAN-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1934 4168-9 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17770.

<4> Royal Air Force, 11-APR-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1975 4025-26 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17761.

<5> Historic England, National Record of the Historic Environment, 205570 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jan 7 2026 10:31AM