Monument record MDO5545 - Linear dyke running towards Tenantry Down, Gussage All Saints

A linear dyke, it has been almost totally levelled by ploughing but it is still visible on air photographs as cropmarks and as banked and ditched earthworks. A stretch survives as an earthwork in a belt of scrub, at which point the ditch is 25 feet wide and at least 4 feet deep, accompanied by a bank 18 feet wide and 1.5 feet high. It's full extent is unclear. To the west, it is traceable as far as circa ST 99801190, just short of the Ackling Dyke Roman road. Its relationship with the fields and enclosures in this area is unclear. To the east, it appears to have continued at least as far as Tenantry Down, perhaps as far as SU 01161237. In places, on the northwest side at least, field boundaries belonging to field system SU 01 SW 10 appear to respect the linear. It was digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

Surveyed at 1:2500 (see plan with SU 01 SW 49). <2>

Aerial photographs taken in 2005 show what may be the cropmark continuation of the ditch described by the previous authorities. It can be seen some 200m to the south west at ST 9960 1181 and can be traced south west for over 770m to ST 9886 1159. This end point is approximately 400m to the north of the linear SU 91 SE 143 and it is possible that these three separate lengths of ditch are all part of the same feature. <9>

The feature is visible as banked and ditched earthworks on aerial photographs <1, 5, 8>. Where visible it appears to comprise a central 4.5m wide ditch flanked by 4m wide banks. The feature runs broadly from the southwest to northeast onto Tenantry Down, where it appears to turn east <1, 5>. At the neck of the turn to the east there are additional banked and ditched linears on its south side which may be contemporary but may alternatively be later in origin, possibly trackways respecting the earlier feature.

The feature may be associated with a curvilinear banked earthwork to the east (MDO40456), possibly part of a late prehistoric field system. Further ditched linear features on Tenantry Down (MDO40449-40451) appear to overlie the feature, which is presumed to represent a possible late prehistoric boundary bank or hollow way. It may be associated with some form of land division or territorial land boundary.

The feature is still variously visible on Google Earth imagery between 2009 and 2018 and was digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

<1> Royal Air Force, 27-APR-47, RAF/CPE/UK/2038 RS 4106-7 (Aerial Photograph). SDO15822.

<2> Rigg, J, Field Investigators Comments JR, F1 JR 07-APR-54 (Unpublished document). SWX1255.

<3> Historic England, Historic England Archive, 1094312 (Index). SDO14738.

Object Title: SU 01 SE 11 and 49 (1954). Scope & Content: Index card. Includes profile Antiquity Model: Surveyed

<4> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1963 (Map). SWX1540.

(SU 00651223) Earthwork (NR)

<5> National Monuments Record, 04-MAR-70, NMR 169/248 (SU0112/002) (Aerial Photograph). SDO15819.

<6> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/091 RCHME Inventory: Dorset V (East) (Unpublished document). SDO18032.

<7> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), 21, Gussage All Saints 21 (Monograph). SDO129.

'(21) Linear Dyke, now almost totally levelled by ploughing, is visible on air photographs (58/RAF/3250: 0057-8; C.U.A.P., ANC 47-49) running N.E. from about ST 998119 towards Tenantry Down. It survives as an earthwork for some 65 yards in a belt of scrub around SU 00681224, where it apears to end, but the ditch has almost certainly been enlarged here to accommodate a small building. At this point the ditch is 25 ft. wide and at least 4 ft. deep, with a bank 18 ft. wide and 1½ ft. high along the S.E. side. The dyke cannot be traced through the belt of scrub, but air photographs suggest that it may have continued on to Tenantry Down, as far as SU 01161237. 'Celtic' fields (Group (82), p. 118) appear to run up to the dyke on its N.W. side.'

<8> Ordnance Survey, 05-MAY-89, OS89135 V 378-9 (Aerial Photograph). SDO15823.

<9> Bowen, H C, 1990, The Archaeology of Bokerley Dyke, Area Plan 2 (Monograph). SWX800.

<10> National Monuments Record, 17-NOV-2005, NMR ST 9911/32 (24133/40) (Aerial Photograph). SDO19575.

<11> National Record of the Historic Environment, 213770 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Nov 11 2024 4:06PM