Monument record MDO5439 - Roman Road, Park Farm, Wimborne Minster, Colehill

Banked and ditched linear features to the east of Parks Farm are visible on 1940's aerial photographs. They are considered likely to be features associated with a Roman road at this location and were digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project. Roman Road surviving as an raised agger up to 8m wide and 0.4m high. When this monument was first recorded by Colonel Drew in 1928 he described a silted-up ditch 2m wide on each side, but only the southern ditch is now visible.

(SZ 02679948 to SZ 03149968) Supposed line of Roman road found by C D Drew. (SZ 01709900 to SZ 01709866) E C Chancellor FSA examined a deep trench along this line but could see no sign of the Roman road found by C.D. Drew. <1>

Perambulation of the alleged Roman road was inconclusive. At no point along the suggested course were any definite signs of a Roman road seen, and the only significant point in favour is the fact that it appears to be aligned upon a high point occupied by a barrow at SU 04830037 (SU 00 SW 18). Probing was inconclusive. J.B. Calkin (1) was not consulted. <2>

Colonel Drew found and investigated this Roman road about 25 years ago. No evidence of a road was found other than a bank on the south side of the hedge extending westwards from Park Farm and a short stretch of agger east of the farm. <3>

A distinct, though short length of agger pointed east and west, is visible in fields at Park Farm east of Wimborne. It was discovered by Drew and confirmed by O G S Crawford in 1928 when it was 1 ft high, 18 ft wide with a silted up but perceptible ditch 7 ft wide on each side. West of Park Farm it was seen as a distinct swell in the ground for 250 yards with a field hedge and bank on its northern edge. Margary says it may be part of a continuation of RR 422 from Ringwood through Ferndown. Its purpose would be to connect with the Poole Harbour road (RR 4d) near the point where this has crossed the Stour. It was shown on the Ordance Survey map of Roman Britain 2nd Edition, but omitted from the 3rd Edition. <4-7>

SZ 03159970 to SZ 03259975. Roman Road with 500 ft length of raised causeway on pasture at Park Farm. There is a further short length just south of the bend in the A 31 200 yards to the east north east. <8>

Banked and ditched linear features to the east of Park Farm are visible on 1940s aerial photographs (10 and 11).

The features comprise sections of 3.5m wide rectilinear banks flanked on either side by narrow parallel ditches approximately 1.2m wide. Towards the east are some additional short sections of rectilinear banks and ditches within domestic gardens of similar form and on the same alignment. The features are considered likely to be part of one longer feature, assumed to be a Roman road recorded at this location. The features extend across the width of two historic enclosures recorded on the OS 1st Edition map, stopping at the exterior boundary of Park Farm and presumably truncated by this. There is no clear sign of the feature contionuing to the west of the Parks Farm buildings. At their eastern end the features are less well-defined and more intermittent, having clearly been disturbed by housing and garden plots.

In total the features cover a distance of 505m, from SZ 03471 99809 to SZ 03003 99615.

The site remains partially open fields on current Google Earth imagery, although there is more housing infill at the eastern end. The central section (the currently Scheduled area) is visible as a cropmark and is also visible on 2015 Lidar Imagery (12). The features were digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

<1> Calkin, J B, 1950, Annotated Record Map Corr. 6 (J B Calkin 1950) (Map). SWX2957.

<2> Swatridge, G C, Various, Field Investigators Comments GCS, F1 GCS 17-MAR-54 (Unpublished document). SWX1169.

<3> Rigg, J, Field Investigators Comments JR, F1 JR 20-MAR-54 (Unpublished document). SWX1255.

<3.1> Drew, C D, Colonel C D Drew, Curator of the Dorset County Museum (Verbal communication). SDO17340.

<4> Margary, Ivan D, 1973, Roman roads in Britain, 94-95 (Monograph). SDO17341.

<5> 1929, Somerset and Dorset Notes and Queries 19, 170-171 (Serial). SDO17342.

<6> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1944, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1943, 58-59 (Serial). SDO43.

<7> Ordnance Survey, 1931, Roman Britain (Map). SDO17343.

<8> Department of the Environment, Department of the Environment (Inspector of Ancient Monuments) Record Form, 1968 (Index). SDO17344.

<9> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 530 (Monograph). SDO150.

<10> Royal Air Force, 12-DEC-46, RAF/CPE/UK/1893 RS 4158-9 (Aerial Photograph). SDO16008.

<11> Royal Air Force, 12-DEC-46, RAF/CPE/UK/1893 RS 4159-60 (Aerial Photograph). SDO16009.

<12> XX-XXX-2015, Environment Agency DTM Lidar 1m (Aerial Photograph). SDO15442.

<13> Whelan, J, 2016, Archaeological Evaluation. Land south of Leigh Road, Wimborne Minster, Dorset (Phase II) (Unpublished document). SDO14890.

‘Trench 19 was excavated across a Scheduled Ancient Monument (MDO5439) and contained a thin band of pea grit/fine sorted gravels 1908 up to 0.10m in depth flanked by a pair of parallel ditches; 1903 a broad U-shaped ditch 1.36m in width and 0.42m in depth was filled with 1904, a grey/brown silt/sand 0.30m in depth, which underlay 1905, a mid-grey/brown sand/silt up to 0.12m in depth; ditch 1906, steep sided with a concave base measured 0.90m in width by 0.48m in depth and was filled with 1907 a yellow/brown silt/sand. Whilst no datable evidence was obtained it is likely the pair of ditches and the thin sorted gravel layer, formed the drainage and metalling of a remnant Roman road.’

<14> National Record of the Historic Environment, 457920 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Oct 7 2024 1:44PM