Monument record MDO7480 - Romano-British occupation and shale working site, Corfe Castle

Debris occurs over an area of about an acre, but the greatest concentration of Romano-British finds comes from a spot some 140 yards south of the nothern wall of the field and 50 yards west of the eastern wall, where some blocks of limestone may indiacate a building. <1>

SY 953788 Kingston Plantation. Occupation debris including Kimmeridge shale waste comes from ploughing on the palteau S of the plantation. The material includes Samian ware, coarse ware of Iron Age `C' or early Roman date and some of the 3rd or 4th century, shale armlet lathe-cores of Calkin's class `C' a few Iron Age `A' sherds andrejects from a hand-cut shale armlet industry. <2>

An apparently Romano-British bronze bracelet consisting of a 5 inch long piece of thin and much bent strip of bronze decorated with oblique knurling was found by P A Brown, circa 1975, on the Kingston Plantation occupation site (see above). <3>

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1956, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1954, 80 (Serial). SDO54.

An Early Iron Age and Romano-British occupation site near Kingston Plantation, Corfe Castle; SY(30)/95317876. This site, discovered by Mr. Brown in 1954, 300 yds. West of the road to Chapman's Pool, is no. 20 in Calkin's list of Purbeck sites yielding waste from the shale armlet industry [Footnote 1: Proc., 75 (1953), p. 69], although manufacture here is not yet confirmed by the discovery of lathe-tools. Mr. Brown writes that the area, on Purbeck limeston,is at present a ploughed field, and yielded Iron Age 'A' haematite ware, flint scrapers, a piece of a hand-cut shale armlet rough-out, Romano-British pottery including decorated Samian and some 3rd or 4th century coarse ware, over an area of about an acre. Later on Mr. Calkin recorded a few turned shale cores of Class C. In Mr. Brown's view the greater concentration of Romano-British finds occurred some 140 yds south of the northern wall fo the field and 50 yds. west of the eastern wall, where some blocks of limestone suggested the possibility of a building. The finds made by Mr. Brown are at present retained by him. Some distance south of this site lie the remains of Celtic fields associated with the two settlements on West hIll [Footnote 2: Proc., 74 (1952), p. 92]. There appear to be no signs now to suggest that this system reached our present site, but some may have been obliterated by intensive ploughing in more recent times - just here, in fact, the Royal Commission notes traces of strip-fields [Footnote 3: R.C.H.M. records].

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 600 (Monograph). SDO150.

‘(237) KINGSTON PLANTATION (SY 97 NE). Occupation Debris including Kimmeridge shale waste comes from ploughing on the plateau S. of the plantation, about 475 ft. above sea level (953788). The material includes samian ware, coarse ware of Iron Age 'C' or early Roman date and some of the 3rd or 4th century, shale armlet lathe-cores of Calkin's class C, and a few Iron Age 'A' sherds and rejects from a hand-cut shale armlet industry. (Dorset Procs. LXXV (1953), 69; LXXVI (1954), 80.)’

<3> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1976, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1975, 66 (Serial). SDO75.

‘A Romano-British bronze bracelet (?) from Kingston, Corfe Castle. Mr. P.A. Brown has found, on the Iron Age and Roman site near Kingston Plantation (Footnote: R.C.H.M., op. cit., 600) a 5-in. long piece of a thin and much bent strip of bronze, just under 4 mm wide, apparently from a bracelet. The face is decorated with oblique knurling and one end has remains probably of an eyelet hole. A similar object is recorded from Blashenwell in these Proceedings, Vol. 91, 192.'

<4> Papworth, M D J, Trust for Wessex Archaeology, 1983, Isle of Purbeck Survey, IOP 68 (Index). SDO147.

'Site lies in a regularly ploughed field. OS SY97NE26. 7/7/D.'

<5> National Record of the Historic Environment, 456427 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Oct 11 2023 2:25PM