Monument record MDO740 - Shrunken village, Cerne Abbas

Deserted medieval village remains comprising a complex of sub-rectilinear banked enclosures and sunken trackways north of Abbey Farm, on the east side of the River Cerne. The features are visible as earthworks on a 1949 aerial photograph and partially visible on Environment Agency lidar imagery and they were digitally plotted during the Dorset upper Cerne and Piddle Valleys AIM project.

A small area under grass, centred at ST 66390160, with banked and ditched enclosures which probably denote
medieval depopulation. Visible on air photographs. <1>

The field is under wheat, but low ridges in the crop roughly conforming with the earthworks as shown on the OS 1:2500 plan (1900) suggest there are visible remains, though severely ploughed and spread. <2>

The features are visible as earthworks on 1940s aerial photographs and partially visible on Environment Agency lidar imagery. <4, 5, 6>
They correspond with earthworks shown on the OS 1st Edition map <7> and comprise linear banked earthworks on a southeast-northwest alignment, having no clear pattern but suggesting some partial rectilinear enclosures with a possible double banked trackway on the east side and a possible hollow way on the north side. Central to the site is an uncertain arrangement of a linear bank with a series of hollows along its west side, and south of this a row of low earthwork mounds. On the west side banked linears merge with part of a post medieval water meadow (MDO48429) and it is difficult to differentiate the two sets of features at this location. The features were digitally plotted during the Dorset upper Cerne and Piddle Valleys AIM project.

<1> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, F1 NVQ 31-JAN-55 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<1.1> Royal Air Force, 11-APR-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1974 2375-6 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18872.

<2> Phillips, A S, Various, Field Investigators Comments ASP, F2 ASP 15-JUL-77 (Unpublished document). SWX3817.

<3> National Record of the Historic Environment, 199002 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

<4> Royal Air Force, 11-APR-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1974 FS 2375 (Aerial Photograph). SDO20736.

<5> Cambridge University Collection of Aerial Photography, 08-APR-1949, CAP 7942/56 (Aerial Photograph). SDO20897.

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

<7> Ordnance Survey, 1864, 1886, Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, epoch one (Map). SDO10239.

Record last edited

Aug 21 2024 11:55AM