Monument record MDO714 - Settlement on Black Hill, Cerne Abbas

A settlement including a roughly square enclosure formed by a bank around 6 metres wide with an outer ditch visible in places. At least two round houses have been identified in the interior of the enclosure, and it is surrounded by an extensive field system. Limited excavation in 1981-2 and field walking in 1983 indicate activity from the Neolithic to the Roman periods. Several conjoined rectilinear banked enclosures with associated banked linears are visible as earthworks on 1940s aerial photographs and Environment Agency lidar imagery. 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>

Several conjoined rectilinear banked enclosures with associated banked and ditched linear features are visible as earthworks on 1940's aerial photographs and Environment Agency lidar imagery. The features include one, possibly two sub-square banked and ditched enclosures linked by a hollow way or trackway, with a series of field enclosures on the south side of the largest suqarish enclosure. Some of the peripheral linear banks might be part of a wider later prehistoric field system, largely recorded under MDO48134. 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.

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

<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 2374-5 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18833.

<3.2> Royal Air Force, 11-APR-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1974 2376 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17366.

<3.3> St Joseph, J K, 14-JUL-1948, St Joseph AY9 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18869.

<3.4> St Joseph, J K, 14-JUL-1948, St Joseph BJ21 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18870.

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

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

<8> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1983, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1982, 67-70 (Serial). SDO82.

<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.

‘The two enclosures and associated field earthworks at Black Hill were examined and assessed by excavation and survey in December and January 1981/82. Additional fieldwork was undertaken in the late autumn of 1983 when parts of the western hilltop were ploughed for the first time.’
…
‘All three fields on the hilltop were examined and recorded after ploughing. Systematic fieldwalking on the National Grid was the basis of the survey record; with detailed artefact distributions, soil marks and earthworks plotted on a 50 metre grid.’
…
‘This survey identified previously unrecorded elements of the field system, and further defined their structure. The artefact distributions have enabled some definition of functional zones. The data also allows for a settlement sequence to be described, although this needs to be tested by excavation.’
‘The survey demonstrates that flint was extracted and worked on the hilltop from the early prehistoric period (Late Neolithic) onwards, and notably in the north-eastern area; pick fragments, hammerstones and core-waste. Tools, predominantly flint scrapers, concentrated in the southern and western areas, as does the early pottery (Middle Bronze Age to Early Iron Age). This early pottery has its densest concentration on the eastern edge of the site and is bounded by the concentration of core waste and hammerstones to the south-west, the eastern earthwork enclosure to the west and a broad concentration of flint scrapers to the south. This Bronze Age ‘settlement focus’ occurs in an area undefined by soil marks and earthworks but which probably lies in an area that was subjected to ploughing in the 18/19th century (distribution of post-medieval pottery, manuring). The occurrence of Late Iron Age and Romano-British pottery and tile across the area indicates systematic use of the hilltop in this period, although the pattern of earthworks as such probably originates in the Bronze Age. However, three distinct, separate and successive field arrangements can be recognised.’

<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> Royal Air Force, 11-APR-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1974 FS 2375 (Aerial Photograph). SDO20736.

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

Record last edited

Dec 4 2024 1:18PM