Monument record MDO7518 - Iron Age settlement at Bucknowle Farm, Corfe Castle

Evidence in the form of buildings, pottery finds and other artefacts indicative of Iron Age settlement, found on this site over several years of investigation.

SY 95458154. Late Iron Age occupation and a Roman villa site discovered at Bucknowle Farm. Excavations by J. Collins and N. H. Field between 1976-1980 investigated the site of a tesselated floor previously discovered by P. A. Brown in 1975. The earliest features on the site were ditches, gullies and other fabrics indicating an extensive activity from the late Iron Age to the mid-1st century AD. The first major structure found in the excavations however, was a late 3rd-mid 4th century tripartite villa-wing comprising a corridor, domestic rooms and service rooms which formed an extension to another, earlier building. The corridor of the villa wing had been extended over earlier foundations around which ran an external drain and this corridor also linked the villa range. The frigidarium and successive plunge baths were identified with at least two main building phases followed by industrial use when the bath was filled in. The other end of the corridor was traced connecting the villa range to subsidiary buildings together with further walls overlying earlier features. (For similar references see Britannia 7 1976 p360; Ibid 9 1978 p459-62; Ibid 10 1979 p 326-7; Ibid 11 1980 p 389-90) Plan (from p.460 Britannia 9 1978). <1-5>

It is now clear that the earliest occupation on the site dates to the C6th-C5th BC. Iron Age huts and ditches of the C3rd BC occur extensively to the North-East, and late Iron Age ritual enclosure was located containing a crouched inhumation. Pits of the early Roman period have been found beneath Building 11, a barn dated to ca 300 AD, and 6 agricultural buildings of the late C2nd to C3rd AD have been identified. Within one of these buildings was a deposit of complete coarse vessels, Samian vessels showing cut-glass technique and evidence of manufacturing shale objects. The latter included 7 benches which were apparently intended to create 3-legged stoals. The tripalite villa is dated from 270-370 AD and in the later period comprised two residences, perhaps, sharing common bathouse. This suggests the same kinship arrangement as at Halstock, Tarrant Hinton, and Woodhouse Hill (Studland). Excavations should be completed in 1991.<6-18>

(A Durotrigian coin was found on the site (auth 10)) A total of 14 Romano-British inhumations have been found in the farm complex (auth 14). A Neolithic leaf-shaped arrowhead ca.40mm long by 15mm wide was found on the villa site. In possession of the finder, P Brown. (see p.170, of auth 2, PA Brown).

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1976, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1975, 66 (Serial). SDO75.

<2> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1978, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1976, 54 (Serial). SDO76.

<3> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1980, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1977, 120 (Serial). SDO77.

<4> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1980, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1978, 112 (Serial). SDO78.

<5> Council for British Archaeology, 1980, Council for British Archaeology Group 12: Newsletter, 1980, 129 (Serial). SWX9310.

<6> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1981, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1979, 133 (Serial). SDO79.

<7> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1982, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1980, 88 (Serial). SDO80.

<8> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1982, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1981, 123 (Serial). SDO81.

<9> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1983, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1982, 183 (Serial). SDO82.

<10> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1983, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1983, 146 (Serial). SDO83.

<11> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1985, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1984, 116 (Serial). SDO84.

<12> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1986, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1985, 164 (Serial). SDO85.

‘EXCAVATIONS AT BUCKNOWLE FARM 1985
Excavations at Bucknowle Farm in 1985 completed the plan of Building 8, another gable-ended structure on the south side of the yard first located in 1983. In several ways, it clearly resembled Building 5, which lay on the north. Both had very similar overall dimensions (close to 10.5 m by 7 m). Both were backed by central open-ended bays, 3 m wide and 4 to 5 m deep. Both possessed a kind of lean-to addition against one gable-end. While Building 5 had produced evidence of shale working the main signs of activity in Building 8 was the discovery of eight loom-weights lying in one corner. A stamp of the Late Antonine potter Lottius of Lezoux, which was retrieved from the wall foundations of this building, came from the edge of an Iron Age ritual enclosure or cemetery, lying below a path and the partly robbed walling of yet another building, 9. Evidence including a crouched burial flanked by Durotrigian pottery; a deposit in a shallow pit of earlier Iron Age vessels (Eldon’s Seat type); and several other unusual pits, one of which was left to be examined in 1986.’

<13> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1987, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1986, 181 (Serial). SDO86.

<14> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1988, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1987, 129 (Serial). SDO87.

<15> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1989, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1988, 151-152 (Serial). SDO88.

<16> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1990, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1989, 107 (Serial). SDO89.

<17> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1991, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1990, 117-119 (Serial). SDO90.

<18> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1992, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1991, 173-174 (Serial). SDO91.

Record last edited

Oct 23 2023 2:13PM