Monument record MDO6279 - Post-medieval ditch in St Giles Park, Wimborne St Giles

A banked and ditched linear earthwork is visible at St Giles Park on 1940s aerial photographs and current Lidar imagery. The feature may represent a post medieval garden earthwork but may re-use an older trackway or boundary feature of potentially prehistoric origin, although a later date for this is also possible. The linear contines further southwest than indicated on the OS 1st Edition map and may correspond with a series of linears to the southwest thought to represent trackways and field boundaries associated with a prehistoric field system. The features were digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

'(33) Mounds, Banks etc., near St Gile's House (4), appear mostly to be connected with the 18th and 19th century landscaping of the park. A mound (03341114), 4 1/2 ft. high and about 50 ft. diam/, marked on O.S. maps as a tumulus, is probably spoil from the ha-ha which extends to the W. Of three mounds (032114) beside the canal which joins the lake into the grotto (6), two are 15 ft. and one is 40 ft. in diameter; none exceeds 2 ft. in height. A slightly curved bank (03011168), 120 ft. long from N. to S., 25 ft. wide and 5 ft. high, has no associated ditch. A ditch of hollow-way shown on O.S. maps (038113) is 50 ft. to 60 ft. wide and 2 ft. to 3 ft. deep; it extends roughly N.-S. and represents a former track, possibly older than the park'. (1)

A banked and ditched linear earthwork is visible at St Giles Park on 1940s aerial photographs and current Lidar imagery (2 and 3). The feature may represent a post medieval garden earthwork but may re-use an older trackway or boundary feature of potentially prehistoric origin, although a later date for this is possible. The linear contines further southwest than indicated on the OS 1st Edition map, for around 743m, and may correspond with a series of linears to the southwest thought to represent trackways and field boundaries associated with a field system of potentially prehistoric date, but also possibly of later origin (MDO40151). The linear feature within St Giles Park appears to post date an underlying prehistoric field system (MDO40152).

The feature was digitally plotted 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), 100 (Monograph). SDO129.

<2> Royal Air Force, 20-MAR-45, RAF/106G/LA/187 RS 4099-100 (Aerial Photograph). SDO15759.

<3> XX-XXX-2015, Environment Agency DTM Lidar 1m (Aerial Photograph). SDO15442.

Record last edited

Mar 7 2018 8:18AM