Monument record MDO7333 - Cross dyke on Knowle Hill, Church Knowle

The bank is 50 yds long, 2-3ft. high and there is one gap, which is modern. Visited 26.11.68 when under rough grass. <1>

Visible on air photograph as described above, at SY 93188209. <2>

SY 932821. A dyke 150 feet long, probably associated with the Iron Age settlement (SY 98 SW 13), rises diagonally across the ridge from a broken edge on a quarry at the south to the shoulder above the steep slope on the north. The bank is 23 feet across and about 2 1/2 feet above the ditch which is 13 feet wide. The modern ridgeway track crosses it. A sharply defined shelf crossing the ridge 55 yards to the east is modern. <3>

SY 935824. "Cross ridge dykes, mound and settlement on Knowle Hill". Scheduled and protected by a Preservation Order. (Includes
this dyke). <4>

SY 93168207 to SY 93188212. This turf-covered earthen dyke is 50.0m long and a tyical profile measures 0.6m high with an 0.5m deep ditch on the west side.

Its southern end has been effaced by ?18/19th century quarrying and its northern end overlaid and effaced by a ridgeway track. The course of the dyke from the north side of this track to the edge of the ridge-top (a distance of 6.5m) can be traced as a vague rise and faint ditch depression. The dyke takes a significant change of direction at the highest point of the ridge-top where it is cut by this track; the evidence suggests that there may have been an original gap here.

The break in the bank near its southern end is most probably a later feature because there is no trace of a causeway although the
ditch at this point is rather shallow and disturbed. Resurveyed at 1:2500. <5>

A cross ridge dyke is visible as earthworks on aerial photographs on the west end of Knowle Hill, Church Knowle <7>. The linear bank and ditched feature was digitally plotted during the Wild Purbeck Mapping Project.

Papworth, M D J, Trust for Wessex Archaeology, 1983, Isle of Purbeck Survey, IOP 239 (Index). SDO147.

‘Permanent pasture. Crossed by a track. Damaged. 7/7/C.’

<1> Department of the Environment, Inspector of Ancient Monuments (IAM) Record Form, 26.11.68 (Scheduling record). SDO17470.

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 510, 518 (Monograph). SDO150.

‘(56) Cross-ridge Dykes, five, on Knowle Hill (SY 98 sw; Fig. opp. p. 509, Plate 212), are of varying form; (c) and (d) are complex. Some or all are likely to be contemporary with the Iron Age 'A' settlement, Church Knowle (54), which lies between (c) and (d), the ditches of all the dykes being on the side distant from it. The apparently unfinished works along the N. shoulder between (c) and (d) suggest that there may have been an intention to enclose this area. … (b) (932821), 130 yds. E. of (a), is 150 ft. long, rising diagonally across the ridge from a broken edge on a quarry at the S. to the shoulder above the steep slope on the N. The bank is 23 ft. across and about 2½ ft. above the ditch, 13 ft. wide. The modern ridgeway track crosses it. 55 yds. to the E. a sharply defined shelf crossing the ridge is modern.’

<3> Royal Air Force, RAF/CPE/UK/1821 2415 (Aerial Photograph). SDO20202.

<4> Department of the Environment, 1978, Department of the Environment (IAM) Ancient Monuments of England (Vol 2), 76 (Monograph). SWX1687.

<5> Fletcher, Martin, Field investigator's comments MJF, F1 MJF 01-MAY-86 (Unpublished document). SDO17630.

<6> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/093 RCHME Inventory: Dorset II (South-East) (Unpublished document). SDO17434.

<7> Royal Air Force, 04-NOV-1946, RAF/CPE/UK/1821 2413-14 (Aerial Photograph). SDO13483.

<8> National Record of the Historic Environment, 457047 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Feb 3 2025 10:39AM