Monument record MDO6185 - Field system on Lower Common, Verwood

Earthworks forming roughly rectangular closes cover around 60 acres of the common. The closes vary from 2 to 10 acres and are bounded by low banks and ditches. Single closes are recorded on the western part of the common while larger, continuous groups are recorded elsewhere. They are thought to be late medieval and post-medieval in date, but not all of the same date, and to have been abandoned by 1811. The features were digitally plotted from aerial photographs during the Dorset Stour NMP.

The features were digitally plotted from aerial photographs during the Dorset Stour NMP (Royal Air Force 1947; Ordnance Survey 1966). The site had been levelled by 1966 and is now partially under a modern solar farm (GetMapping 2014).

Historic England, National Record of the Historic Environment, 212964 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Ordnance Survey, 16-MAY-1966, OS/66062 V 029-30 (Aerial Photograph). SDO15672.

Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), 74 (Monograph). SDO129.

'(57) CLOSES (093064 - 101117), sixteen or more, now deserted, cover some 60 acres on Lower Common. They vary in area from 2 to 10 acres, are roughly rectangular and are bounded by low banks and ditches. Twelve closes form a compact group around 099060, but they are not all contemporary. Single closes exist in the W. in fragmentary condition. Since none is shown on O.S. 1811 the closes appear to have been abandoned before that date'.

GetMapping, 2014, Digital vertical aerial photographs (Aerial Photograph). SDO14101.

Royal Air Force, 28-MAY-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/2101 RS 4260-1 (Aerial Photograph). SDO15667.

Record last edited

Aug 28 2026 4:22PM