Monument record MDO6061 - Iron Age and Romano-British settlement at Humby's Stock Coppice, Sixpenny Handley

A sub rectangular enclosure approximately 280ft by 240ft with an entrance in its southeast side. Finds from pits within the enclosure indicate an Iron Age origin. Ditches extending from the monument have been identified by aerial photography. These ditches appear to form boundaries and trackways and are associated with further smaller enclosures.

Monteith, J and Milward, J, 2015, Humby's Stock Coppice Banjo Enclosure SAM 785, Sixpenny Handley, Dorset. Archaeological Evaluation (Unpublished document). SDO16969.

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1952, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1951, 104-105 (Serial). SDO51.

<1> Bowen, H C, 1991, The Archaeology of Bokerley Dyke: Inventory, 29 (Monograph). SDO14864.

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), 69 (Monograph). SDO129.

‘(20) ROMANO-BRITISH OCCUPATION SITE (98311708), noted in 1951 in the W. side of Humby’s Stock Coppice, was indicated by coarse pottery, a bronze bracelet, and 11 coins ranging from Antoninus Pius to the late 4th century; copper slag was also found (Dorset Procs., 73 (1951), 104-5). An Enclosure (982168) linked with boundary ditches and a track is revealed by air photograph (C.U.A.P., BCV 86) in the arable immediately W. and S. of the coppice (Plate 62). It is sub-rectangular, about 280 ft. by 240 ft., and it has an entrance on the S.E. Numerous storage pits, nearly all inside the enclosure except for a few on the W., suggest an Iron-Age origin. From the entrance a narrow passage flanked by side-ditches extends S.E. for about 120 ft. The ditches then curve away, one to S. and S.E., the other to N.E. and then N.W. The second ditch follows a sinuous course and at 98311686 curves to accommodate a small, roughly circular enclosure about 100 ft. across, possibly with storage-pits inside it. Beyond this the ditch forms one side of a track which leads N.W. This ditch appears to have replaced earlier alignments just outside the entrance passage.’

Record last edited

Oct 7 2024 4:19PM