Listed Building record MDO5857 - Iron Age enclosure at Lodge Farm, Pamphill

The National Trust acquired Lodge Farm as part of the Bankes Estate in 1981. Archaeological work carried out as part of the refurbishment of the building revealed parts of a large ditch of Iron Age date, associated with post-holes and pits, and a packed gravel surface containing fragments of Iron Age pottery and burnt flint. These features were interpreted as an enclosure, and a post-pit found under the cross-passage of the farmhouse suggested that an entrance to the enclosure was situated there.

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1988, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1987, 135 (Serial). SDO87.

‘LODGE FARM, PAMPHILL …. The underpinning trenches revealed features predating the construction of the building. A ditch 3.0m wide and 1.5m deep was located under the north-west corner of the medieval lodge. A ditch of similar size was found under the centre of the south wall. Both were cut by stake holes, indicating a palisade. They are clearly part of the same enclosure but neither ditch was located when the cross passage was examined. However, a post-pit indicating the position of a gateway implies that the enclosure entrance was here. The filling of the ditch contained 14th century pottery, mortar, clay and limestone tiles and animal bones, including fallow deer antler. The building material from the ditch indicates that this feature once enclosed an earlier lodge.
The ditch cut a packed gravel surface containing numerous fragments of Iron Age pottery and burnt flint. Eight post-holes and a pit were also found to be of this date, together with two intercutting ditches aligned east-west and running parallel with the south wall of Lodge Farm. These were 1 m wide, 0.5 m deep and traceable for 12 m.’

Record last edited

Aug 23 2024 12:31PM