Monument record MDO7327 - Iron age settlement and shale working site on Knowle Hill, Church Knowle

Iron Age settlement enclosure on Smedmore Hill with evidence of occupational material, including much evidence for the working of Kimmerdge shale. Excavation located a house site and shale jewellery, possibly made on the site. The enclosure is formed by cross ridge dykes. To the north the cross ridge dykes are joined by a bank 1.5m wide and an outer ditch 3m wide.

SY 93568224. An Iron Age 'A' settlement lies on Knowle Hill within an area of 4 1/2 acres between cross-ridge dykes (see SW 98 SW 13.1 and 13.2), extensions of which towards each other on the north suggest an intention to enclose the whole area.

Excavations were carried out in 1956-7 by the RCHME on the largest one of a number of ill-defined scoops which cover one acre on the north shoulder of the hill (see 'X' on plan). It consisted of a roughly circular depression about 24 feet across, dug into the hill slope to a depth of 3 1/2 feet on the uphill side with a flat floor about 11 feet across. In the floor were four post-holes, probably roof supports. Finds included Iron Age 'A' pottery, Kimmeridge shale bracelets and animal bones, and indicated an economy based upon cattle, and also on shale-working. A mound (SY 98 SW 12) may be associated with the settlement.

Undated ditched banks up to 24 feet across and 2 feet high, running up the north slope of the ridge, are of uncertain purpose, although such banks are occasionally found in similar relationship to hill-forts.

The arrangement of dykes (SY 98 SW 4, 15 and 48) to the east and west of those enclosing the settlement suggests pastoral usage. <1-2>

SY 935824. Cross ridge dykes, mound and settlement on Knowle Hill. Scheduled Dorset 708. Protected by preservation order. <3>

This settlement site occupies an exposed position on the highest part of Knowle Hill and enjoys panoramic views, especially to the north and south. The area has been regularly ploughed in the pastbut now lies under rough pasture.

The scoops and depressions surveyed by the RCHM <2> can be traced but they have, along with the cross-ridge dyke to the east, been so spread by the plough as to now be quite amorphous. A larger scale survey than 1:2500 undertaken in ideal conditions would be required to adequately portray the surviving surface remainsof this settlement. No survey action at 1:2500. <4>

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1959, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1957, 106-107 (Serial). SDO57.

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 509-510 (Monograph). SDO150.

'(54) Settlement, of Iron Age 'A', on Knowle Hill (SY 98 SW; 93568224; Plate 212), lay within an area of 4½ acres between cross-ridge dykes on the summit and N. shoulder of the chalk ridge about 470 ft. above O.D. (see Dykes, Church Knowle (56c,d)). Extensions of the dykes towards each other on the N. suggest an unfulfilled intention to enclose the whole area, but the arrangement of the two parts of dyke (d), with the ditch on different sides, can be matched in a settlement on Muston Down, Winterborne Kingston (Dorset III, forthcoming).

Ill-defined scoops are found over one acre only, on the N shoulder, but excavation of the clearest and largest of these, (x), showed that occupational material had been washed into it from the crest of the hill above. Abundant finds here indicated an economy dependent upon cattle, though there was also much evidence for the working of Kimmeridge shale. (Dorset Procs., LXXIX (1957), 106–7.) The arrangement of dykes (56a, b, e), to E. and W. of those enclosing the settlement, suggests pastoral usage as does the absence of 'Celtic' fields. A mound, Church Knowle (51), might be associated with the settlement. Ditched banks, up to 24 ft. across and 2 ft. high, running up the N. side of the ridge on a slope of up to 26°, are undated and of uncertain purpose though such banks are occasionally found in a similar relationship to hill-forts (cf. Chalbury, Bincombe (76)).

(x), a roughly circular area about 24 ft. across, was dug during the Iron Age into a natural N. slope of 9°. Whatever its origins, it eventually had a flat floor about 11 ft. across 3½ ft. below the surface on the uphill side. In this floor were four post-holes, 9 ins. in diameter and arranged in a square with sides of 8 ft., that probably held roof supports. The pottery is all coarse with relatively little finger-tip decoration but no sign of Iron Age 'B' influences.'

<3> Department of the Environment, 1978, Department of the Environment (IAM) Ancient Monuments of England (Vol 2), 76 (Monograph). SWX1687.

<4> Fletcher, Martin, Field investigator's comments MJF, F1 MJF 02-MAY-86 (Unpublished document). SDO17630.

<5> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/093 RCHME Inventory: Dorset II (South-East) (Unpublished document). SDO17434.

<6> Historic England, Historic England Archive (Index). SDO14738.

<7> Historic England, Historic England Archive (Index). SDO14738.

<8> National Record of the Historic Environment, 456930 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jan 20 2025 10:36AM