Monument record MDO6001 - Enclosure west of New Barn Farm, Shapwick

Approximately rectangular enclosure measuring c110 ft by 90 ft. and probably of Iron Age or Roman date. There may be an entrance the north side. There are also a number of discontinuous ditches to the south and south west of the enclosure, which do not appear to form a coherent pattern. The record for this monument has been enhanced with support from Wessex Water. The enclosure is visible as a cropmark on aerial photographs and was digitally plotted from these sources by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

ST 95270153. Enclosure, probably prehistoric or RB. Appears as a soil mark on AP., lying 120ft above OD on a SW slope 500 yards west of New Barn Farm. It is roughly rectangular and measures 110ft by 90ft and a possible entrance occurs on the north side. Air photos reveal a number of former ditches on the undulating land which slopes down to the River Stour, S and SW of Badbury Rings. The ditches appear as crop and soil marks in broken lines which occasionally intersect but nowhere do they form a coherent pattern. <1>

The enclosure is visible as a cropmark on aerial photographs where the feature appears to comprise a partial sub-rectilinear enclosure approximately 43.6m long by 37.8m wide and with a gap/entrance at its southwest corner <2>. It digitally plotted from these sources by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), 63 (Monograph). SDO129.

'(36) Enclosure (95270153), probably prehistoric or Romano-British, appears as a soil-mark on an air photograph (N.M.R., ST 9401/1). Lying 120 ft. above O.D. on a S.W. slope, 500 yds. W. of New Barn Farm, it is roughly rectangular and measures 110 ft. by 90 ft.; a possible entrance occurs on the N. side. Air photographs reveal a number of former ditches on the undulating land which slopes down to the R. Stour, S. and S.W. of (34). They appear as crop-marks and soil-marks in discontinuous lines which occasionally intersect, but nowhere do they form any coherent pattern.'

<1.1> NMR ST 9401/1 (Aerial Photograph). SDO19369.

<2> National Monuments Record, 04-SEP-95, NMR 15396/52-4 (ST9501/8-10) (Aerial Photograph). SDO16215.

<3> Papworth, M, 1994, Shapwick Parish, Kingston Lacy Estate, Wessex Region (Unpublished document). SDO14228.

A barrel shaped enclosure ditch visible on aerial photograph NMR ST9401/1. It measures 36.5m east-west and 39.6m north to south and has an entrance on the east side. It may be associated with the Park Lane barrow group. 112,034 lies 91m to the east. It lies on a south facing slope 20m north of an east-west fence line. The site was plotted as a parch mark by Norman Field in 1975.

<4> National Record of the Historic Environment, 209568 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Feb 8 2023 4:15PM