Monument record MDO5182 - Prehistoric field system on Turnworth Down, Turnworth

<1> 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 (56): TURNWORTH DOWN (Turnworth). ‘Celtic’ fields survive in much broken and altered form within some 60 acres on Turnworth Down and The Cliff, N. and E. of Group (55), on Upper Chalk between 500 ft. and 750 ft. O.D. on valley sides generally facing S.
On the N. a lynchet 7 ft. high extends along the N. side of a winter bourne at ST 810089; other lynchets in pasture to the E., on slopes up to about 10°, are 3 ft. to 15 ft. high and are occasionally defaced by shallow quarrying. Many lesser divisions have been at some time ploughed away, though banks 12 ft. wide and 1 ft. high survive, running down the slope about 813090. N. of this area the fields seem to stop short of the sand-and-gravel capped E.-W. ridge at about 810090. To S.E., E. of the present road, around 817087, a further broken pattern of large lynchets, on the same general alignment, occurs in pasture on slopes of up to 15°. The pattern on the upper slopes and in arable land to the E. suggests the proximity of settlement. The possible settlement on Bonsley Common, noted in Shillingstone (25), lies about ¼ mile N.E. between this group and Group (57). To the S., strip lynchets and ridge-and-furrow on the Cliff (Turnworth (6)) overlie ‘Celtic’ field remains about 818083. There are further greatly disturbed traces S. of Turnworth House, 8166080.
Air photographs: CPE/UK 1934: 4168-9; 1975: 4024-5.’

Record last edited

Jan 8 2013 6:13PM