Monument record MDO737 - Deserted settlement, Cerne Abbas

Earthworks over an area of some 8 acres between the main road and the river. The remains consist of a series of variably-sized rectangular enclosures to the east and west of a trackway and bounded to the south by a sunken roadway. Linear banked and ditched features associated with an area of deserted medieval settlement are visible as earthworks on 1940s aerial photographs and Environment Agency lidar imagery and were digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Cerne and Piddle Valleys AIM project.

Earthworks, 100 yards south of the Tithe Barn (ST 60 SE 46) occupy an area of nearly 8 acres between the main road and the river. They consist of a series of rectangular enclosures of varying size to the east and west of a trackway, and bounded on the south by a sunk roadway. At the north end of the track, on the east side, is a circular sinking 18ft in diameter with vestiges of an outer bank. <1>

The earthworks, typical of Medieval village depopulation are centred at ST 663009, and are as described by the RCHM <1>. The sunken roadway is 6.0m wide and 1.7m deep, the accompanying banks are 5.0m wide and 0.3m high. The track running north from it is of lesser proportions.

It is bordered on the east by five embanked rectangular enclosures of varying size. There are no traces of house platforms. The circular hollow, at ST 66310093, is of no importance. Published 1:2500 survey revised. <2>

Manuscript annotations to the DHER record card note: "Still visible on 1974 DCC Aps" and "Visited Autumn 1983, by LJK + MS. The site is in good condition and under grass. The hollow way is still well preserved. M. 1983". <3>

Linear banked and ditched features associated with an area of deserted medieval settlement are visible as earthworks on 1940s aerial photographs and Environment Agency lidar imagery and were digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Cerne and Piddle Valleys AIM project. The features consist of a north-south aligned trackway, deepset and banked on both sides and with a series or rectilinear plots off its east side. The trackway feeds into a deep hollow way at its south end, which continues southwards along the River Cerne. Fainter banked linears are visible on lidar imagery to the west of the trackway and hollow way and might be field boundaries associated with the settlement. The features correspond with earthworks recorded here on the OS 1st Edition map. <5, 6, 7>

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments England, 1952, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume I (West), 84-85 (Monograph). SDO97.

<2> Phillips, A S, Various, Field Investigators Comments ASP, F1 ASP 15-JUL-77 (Unpublished document). SWX3817.

<3> DCC SMR, to 2003, Former DCC SMR Card Index (Index). SWX8285.

<4> National Record of the Historic Environment, 199056 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

<5> Royal Air Force, 11-APR-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1974 FS 2375 (Aerial Photograph). SDO20736.

<6> Environment Agency, 16-NOV-2021, LIDAR Environment Agency DTM (Aerial Photograph). SDO18034.

<7> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, epoch one (Map). SDO10239.

Record last edited

Jan 8 2025 12:45PM