Monument record MDO5891 - Enclosure at Abbott Street Copse,Pamphill

A banked sub-oval earthwork with a partial outer ditch is visible in Abbott Street Copse on current Lidar imagery. The earthwork comprises a teardrop-shaped banked enclosure approximately 44m long by up to 33m wide. An outer bank approximately 4.8m wide encloses a slightly lower level interior. A partial ditch up to 3.5m wide is visible on the west, south and east sides of the enclosure, which is cut on its north side by a hollow way (MDO41840) of probable medieval date. The southern section of ditch may be incorporated into a second hollow way running off to the SE. NHRE Hob UID 209498 records the enclosure with one source suggesting the earthworks may be the remains of a medieval motte and bailey castle. The features were digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

Scrub clearance in Abbot Street Copse has led to the discovery of an earthwork which could be the remains of a motte-and-bailey. [This is apparently the same earthwork as that described by, auth. 3). <4>

A banked sub-oval earthwork with a partial outer ditch is visible in Abbott Street Copse on current Ldiar imagery <5>

The earthwork comprises a teardrop-shaped banked enclosure approximately 44m long by up to 33m wide. An outer bank approximately 4.8m wide encloses a slightly lower level interior. A partial ditch up to 3.5m wide is visible on the west, south and east sides of the enclosure, which is cut on its north side by a hollow way (MDO41840) of probable medieval date. The southern section of ditch may be incorporated into a second hollow way running off to the SE. NHRE Hob UID 209498 records the enclosure, with one source suggesting the earthworks may be the remains of a medieval motte and bailey castle.

The features were digitally plotted from current Lidar imagery by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1963, Monuments Threatened or Destroyed. A Select List: 1956-1962, 14 (Monograph). SDO12558.

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), 53 (Monograph). SDO129.

‘(93) ENCLOSURE (98500065), in Abbot Street Copse, lies on a spur of the Reading Beds about 125 ft. above O.D. It is roughly oval in plan, 100 ft. across from E. to W. and 75 ft. from N. to S. It is bounded by a low bank up to 15 ft. across and rarely more than 2 ft. high, with a ditch 12 ft. across and 2 ft. deep outside it. There is no obvious entrance and the interior is featureless. The enclosure lies in the fork between two hollowways, probably later than itself, which meet immediately on the W. The N. hollow-way crosses the ditch of the enclosure and, a short distance to the E., cuts the agger of the Roman road from Hamworthy to Badbury Rings.’

<3> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey 1:10,000 scale map, 1978 (Map). SDO17396.

(ST 98500065) Earthwork (NR)

<4> Council for British Archaeology, 1985, Council for British Archaeology Group 12 Newsletter December 1985 (Serial). SDO19353.

<5> Environment Agency, XX-XXX-2015, Environment Agency DTM Lidar 50cm (Aerial Photograph). SDO15306.

<6> National Record of the Historic Environment, 209498 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Aug 23 2024 12:31PM