Monument record MDO6243 - Medieval settlement, The Leaze, Wimborne Minster

A sector of the medieval town, abandoned in the fourteenth century. The earthworks are visible on 1940s aerial photographs and on current Lidar imagery. The features were digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

A Medieval site covering some 17 acres, is reported at the Leaze, Wimborne. <3>

Excavations of the northern part of the settlement between 1961 and 1964, suggested that it was a planned extension to the
town carried out in the 12th. c; five periods were distinguished. The area was abandoned in the mid 14th century. Surface traces indicate 30 to 40 dwellings lined the main and side streets with notches and ridges representing entrances and walls. A square shape in the open space to the west of the silted pond at the north end of the main street, may be an animal pen, and there is an access way from the fields to the west which enters the western back lane. <4>

SZ 007998. The Leaze. Settlement remains including a hollow-way, extending north to south and bounded by low banks interrupted by gaps. Parallel, and 50 yds. to the west, a bank with external ditch is probably the boundary of the closes on that side of the street. One of the northerly closes contains low mounds and rectangular platforms. A ditch 30 yds east of the hollow way and parallel with it, probably bounds closes on the opposite side of the street. A hollow-way further east is almost certainly a later track. Ridge and furrow extends over 12 acres to the west of the site and narrow rig over the south part of the settlement probably accounts for obliteration to closes in this area. Scheduled. <5-6>

Desertion covers about 3 ha., centred at SZ 00849970. A principal north to south street, 6 to 9 metres wide and 0.2 to 0.4 metres deep. Entrance ways at right angles to the street frontages indicate the former presence of houses; obliquely set gaps are probably of modern origin, caused by cattle and farm machinery. Only two platforms are now identifiable, both depressions 0.2 metres deep towards the northern extremity of the settlement. Low mounds mentioned by the R.C.H.M. are not traceable or surveyable, nor the bank accompanying the western boundary ditch. Equally, a banked enclosure to the west again, shown on the R.C.H.M. plan, cannot now be determined with any accuracy nor the southern part of the 'late track' at the extreme east of the area.

The silted pond at SZ 00849979, implied by authority 4, to be an original feature, is a depression 0.5 metres deep. The suggested animal pen appears to be an enclosures at SZ 00779988, about 0.25 ha., of which two sides exist as scarps 0.3 metres high. To the west of the settlement, a fieldway 230 metres long subdivides 6 ha., of rig and furrow, but evidently at one time extended further to the west.
Settlement surveyed at 1:1250 on MSD. <7>

The earthworks are visible on 1940s aerial photographs and on current Lidar imagery <10 and 11>.

The earthworks of a north-south aligned hollow way, presumably the main street, are visible, leading from The Leaze towards a wide open area at the north end of the settlement, containing a pond. On either side are raised banked platforms with gaps along the edges of the street, thought to contain the closes of buildings although no interior detail is visible. Additional banks and ditches are visible to the south , indicating further possible building closes and streets. Scarped banks and earthworks on the north side of the settlement, and extending west from the northwest corner may be earthworks associated with the settlement; one of the banked earthworks is recorded as a field boundary on the OS 1st Edition map <12>. It is not clear whether this is a re-used feature or whether it post-dates the settlement earthworks. A trackway leading from the west and entering into a street on the west side of the settlement is also visible; again, the contemporaneity of this feature with the medieval settlement is not known.

The features were digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1962, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1961, 89 (Serial). SDO61.

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1963, Monuments Threatened or Destroyed. A Select List: 1956-1962, 15 (Monograph). SDO12558.

‘WIMBORNE MINSTER. THE LEAZE [SZ 007997]. Deserted mediaeval settlement remains, including 270 yd. length of hollow-way and adjacent enclosures. Previously unrecorded.’

<3> Field, N H, Oral: Letter from Norman Field, 10 December 1964 (Verbal communication). SDO19374.

<4> Field, N H, 1973, The Leaze, Wimborne an excavation in a deserted medieval quarter of the town. Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society 94, 49-62 (Article in serial). SDO20763.

<5> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), 91-92 (Monograph). SDO129.

<6> Department of the Environment, 1978, Department of the Environment (IAM) Ancient Monuments of England (Vol 2), 84 (Monograph). SWX1687.

<7> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, F1 NVQ 10-JUL-81 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<8> Whelan, J, 2004, An Archaeological Investigation at The Leaze, Wimborne Minster, Dorset (Scheduled Monument No.678) (Unpublished document). SDO11588.

<9> Brace, D, 2019, 14 King Street, Wimborne, Dorset. Results of archaeological evaluation (Unpublished document). SDO16409.

<10> Royal Air Force, 12-DEC-46, RAF/CPE/UK/1893 RS 4155-6 (Aerial Photograph). SDO15997.

<11> XX-XXX-2015, Environment Agency DTM Lidar 1m (Aerial Photograph). SDO15442.

<12> Ordnance Survey, 1864, 1886, Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, epoch one (Map). SDO10239.

<13> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/091 RCHME Inventory: Dorset V (East) (Unpublished document). SDO18032.

<14> National Record of the Historic Environment, 458043 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jul 19 2024 3:29PM