Monument record MDO713 - Settlement on Black Hill, Cerne Abbas

A settlement including a roughly triangular enclosure formed by a bank around 12 metres wide with an outer ditch, now buried. To the north of this is a slight rectangular enclosure, and both are surrounded by a field system. Surface finds from this and another settlement to the north west indicate activity from the Neolithic to the Roman periods. A triangular banked and ditched enclosure comprising a 4m wide bank and 1m wide outer ditch is visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs and earthworks on Environment Agency lidar imagery. The feature is associated with a series of adjacent curvilinear banks that might be part of a contemporary or later field system - possibly part of a much wider field system recorded under MDO48134. The features were digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Cerne and Piddle Valleys AIM project.

Site 'A' (see plan): A possible settlement now under the plough (a) on its side. It could be the remains of an enclosure or the side bank of a fieldway. (b) A triangular enclosure, situated at ST 67410041, the bank averaging 8.0m wide and 0.4m high with an outer ditch 3.0m wide and 0.3m deep. The entrance is on the SE. (c) A poorly defined depression, possibly a hut site, situated at ST 67410045. About 8.0m in diameter and 0.2m deep, it has unsurveyable traces of an outer bank to the north. No pottery was found in this depression and it may be unrelated to the site. There is no visible evidence of a settlement at site 'A' and it may simply represent outwork enclosures of the settlement at Site 'B'.

Site 'B'. A settlement site under rough pasture. (a) A squarish enclosure in good condition with an internal diameter of 20.0m with an entrance on the south side opening on to a bivallate trackway. The bank is 4.0m to 6.0m in width and 0.3m to 1.2m in height. The east bank has an outer ditch visible but there are only faint traces of an outer ditch on the north and west sides. (b-c represents a section surveyed in the field).

(d) A hut-circle, situated at ST 66820054, with a diameter of 10.0m and a depression 0.3m deep on the east side and level on the west side. The outer bank is 4.0m wide and 0.5m high with the entrance on the SE. A poorly defined scarp to the south suggests an extension.

(e) An unbanked depression 10.0m in diameter and 0.3m deep situated at ST 66780058. Possibly a hut-circle in poor condition. The bivallate trackway has banks which average 0.3m high and 2.5m wide. The north bank is surveyable for 30.0m to the east of the enclosure and the south bank for 15.0m after which it becomes less well defined. About both sites, 'A' and 'B' is an extensive and pronounced Iron Age/Romano British field system clearly visible on air photographs. <3>

Site 'A'. Apart from the three-sided enclosure, this site and the surrounding field system have been reduced by the plough as to be barely traceable. The enclosure has an internal diameter of 20.0m NW-SE by 12.0m transversely, and the bank is now from 7.0m to 12.0m in width and up to 3.0m in height. There are no traces of the outer ditch. Site 'B'. No change. 1:2500 AM survey and PFD revised. <5>

Excavation during 1981/1982 and fieldwalking during 1983 revealed Late Neolithic flint extraction, preceding settlement on the hill top which dated from the early Bronze Age until the Romano-British period. Full excavation and field-walking reports, and analysis of the settlement and field systems. <6-11>

A triangular banked and ditched enclosure comprising a 4m wide bank and 1m wide outer ditch is visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs and earthworks on Environment Agency lidar imagery. The feature is associated with two possible additional enclosures to the northwest, a series of bivallate and ditched trackways or hollow ways and a series of adjacent curvilinear banks and ditches that might be part of a contemporary or field system - possibly part of a much wider field system recorded under MDO48134 that might have continued in use into the Iron Age to Roman periods. The features were digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Cerne and Piddle Valleys AIM project. <14, 15>

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, 1900 (Map). SDO10373.

(ST 67200059) British Settlement (NR) (Site of) (NAT)

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments England, 1952, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume I (West), 83 (Monograph). SDO97.

‘(32) Settlements and Barrow, on Black Hill ½ m. S.E. of the village, form two groups. The eastern settlement includes a roughly triangular enclosure (with a side of about 30 yards) with convex sides, traces perhaps of a rectangular enclosure to the N. and a series of banks forming part of a Celtic field-system, all shown on the accompanying plan A. There are traces of various sinkings presumably pits. About 150 ft. N.E. of the triangular enclosure is an oval sinking 27 ft. by 21 ft. with a slight rise in the middle. About 250 yards S.S.W. of the same enclosure is a bowl barrow about 55 ft. in diam. and 7 ft. high; it has been disturbed at the top. The western settlement, about 600 yards to the W., is rather better defined. On the N. side is a small enclosure, about 26 yards by 28 yards, with internal platforms forming three levels. It is entered on the S. side from a roadway. To the S.W. is a hut-circle apparently with an annexe on the S. Other depressions and the adjoining banks of the Celtic fieldsystem are shown on the accompanying plan B.’

<3> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, F1 NVQ 31-JAN-55 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<3.1> Royal Air Force, 11-APR-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1974 2376 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17366.

<3.2> Royal Air Force, 11-APR-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1974 2374-5 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18833.

<3.3> St Joseph, J K, 14-JUL-1948, St Joseph BJ21 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18870.

<3.4> St Joseph, J K, 14-JUL-1948, St Joseph AY9 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18869.

<4> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1962 (Map). SWX1540.

(ST 67250056) Earthworks (NR)

<5> Phillips, A S, Various, Field Investigators Comments ASP, F2 ASP 22-JUL-77 (Unpublished document). SWX3817.

<6> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1982, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1981, 122 (Serial). SDO81.

<7> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1983, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1982, 67-70 (Serial). SDO82.

<8> Bond, D, 1983, An examination of a scheduled area and fields at Black Hill, Cerne Abbas, Dorset (Article in serial). SDO14050.

<9> Cox, P W and Woodward, P J, 1984, Field Survey of the Ancient Fields and Enclosures at Black Hill, Cerne Abbas, Dorset, 55-64 (Unpublished document). SDO152.

<10> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1985, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1984, 111 (Serial). SDO84.

<11> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1988, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1987, 55-64 (Serial). SDO87.

<12> Historic England, Historic England Archive, 881835 (Index). SDO14738.

RCHME: Settlements on Black Hill, Cerne Abbas. Settlements 32a & 32b in text

<13> National Record of the Historic Environment, 198992 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

<14> National Monuments Record, 09-APR-1980, NMR 1743/251-261 (Aerial Photograph). SDO20734.

<15> Environment Agency, 16-NOV-2021, LIDAR Environment Agency DTM (Aerial Photograph). SDO18034.

Record last edited

Dec 4 2024 1:14PM