Monument record MDO6648 - Cross dyke on Windsbatch, Upwey, Weymouth

In the ditch along the ridge top are several 'Standing Stones" up to 0.7m high and in line. <2>

Cross Ridge Dyke on Windsbatch (SY 68 NE; 65748504 to 65778517), a bank 30 ft. across and some 8 ft. above a W. ditch 30 ft. wide, is bowed slightly E. and virtually cuts off the E. end of the limestone ridge. Its S. end is on the 300 ft. contour, at the edge of a very steep slope (an apparent continuation downhill is a small boundary bank of later date built in the ditch and continuing its line); 240 ft. to the N. is a gap, probably original, 16 ft. across. A less clear length of bank running for some 90 ft. N. of this gap ends a little way down the rounded shoulder of the hill where there is much old quarry disturbance. The N. slope is only notably steep E. of the dyke, which is therefore defensive in situation as well as size. There are slight banks and scarps in the 8 acres of ridge top to the E. but
the area is very disturbed. <4>

The cross ridge dyke is as described by RCHM <4>. The seven stones standing above ground in the ditch are possibly part of the modern boundary aspect of the complex. Re-surveyed at 1:2500 on MSD. <5>

Visible as an earthwork on aerial photographs <7>. The site was digitally plotted during the South Dorset Ridgeway Mapping Project.

<1> Royal Air Force, 22-JAN-1948, RAF/CPE/UK/2431 4296-7 (Aerial Photograph). SDO12029.

<2> Rigg, J, Field Investigators Comments JR, F1 JR 28-JUL-54 (Unpublished document). SWX1255.

<3> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1963 (Map). SWX1540.

(Centred at SY 65728506) Cross Dyke (NR)

<4> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 519 (Monograph). SDO150.

'(436) Cross-ridge Dyke, on Windsbatch (SY 68 NE; 65748504 to 65778517), a bank 30 ft. across and some 8 ft. above a W. ditch 30 ft. wide, is bowed slightly E. and virtually cuts off the E. end of the limestone ridge. Its S. end is on the 300 ft. contour, at the edge of a very steep slope (an apparent continuation downhill is a small boundary bank of later date built in the ditch and continuing its line); 240 ft. to the N. is a gap, probably original, 16 ft. across. A less clear length of bank running for some 90 ft. N. of this gap ends a little way down the rounded shoulder of the hill where there is much old quarry disturbance. The N. slope is only notably steep E. of the dyke, which is therefore defensive in situation as well as size. There are slight banks and scarps in the 8 acres of ridge top to the E. but the area is very disturbed. Immediately N. of the ridge are faint traces of 'Celtic' fields broken down by strip ploughing before the whole area was flattened by more recent cultivation. '

<5> Barton, J G, Various, Field Investigators Comments JGB, F2 JGB 24-APR-80 (Unpublished document). SDO11900.

<6> Papworth, M, 1983, The South Dorset Ridgeway Project: condition and management survey, SDR 699 (Index). SDO12304.

This monument is in the corner of an arable field. The whole of the field is ploughed up to the boundary of the monument. The dyke itself is left under grass. It is bounded on the S & E by a barbed wire fence. 1/1/B

<7> 06-APR-2002, PGA SY6585 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11822.

<8> National Record of the Historic Environment, 452031 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jun 24 2022 2:59PM