Monument record MDO757 - Deserted settlement at Pulston, Charminster

The site of a deserted medieval settlement with associated strip fields is visible as earthworks and cropmarks on aerial photographs. Also known as Polingston. The remains of at least four closes thought to be associated with the settlement of Pulston are visible as earthworks to the north of Pulston Barn on aerial photographs and Environment Agency lidar imagery and were digitally plotted during te Dorset Upper Cerne and Piddle Valleys AIM project.

SY 667953. Listed as Deserted Medieval Village of Polingston. <3>

Well-defined earthworks consisting of rectangular closes and house platforms are visible at SY 671946 on available RAF air photographs <4>. Further north from these earthworks, in area SY 667953, no distinct traces of desertion can be seen <5>.

There are no settlement remains at SY 667953 around Pulston Barn. Running north-east of the Barn for 170 metres and centred at SY 66709542, are three terraces of strip lynchets up to 1.2 metres high. These have been subsequently cut into (? Quarried), giving the false impression of closes and house platforms.

Immediately south of the Barn at SY 66759525, quarrying has taken place giving rise to further misinterpretation as closes.

The settlement around SY 671946 has been considerably ploughed down leaving little more than smoothed and spread features, now almost indeterminate. Detail deleted from M.S.D. <6>

C 12/C 13 pottery has been recovered at SY 6667 9545 following a limited amount of surface disturbance. <7>

The site of a deserted medieval settlement with associated strip fields is visible as earthworks and cropmarks on aerial photographs. <8-10>

The remains of at least four closes thought to be associated with the settlement of Pulston are visible as earthworks to the north of Pulston Barn on aerial photographs and Environment Agency lidar imagery and were digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Cerne and Piddle Valleys AIM project. The remains are centred on SW 66672 95414 and might be overlain on their west side by an area of post medieval water meadow. <12,13>

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 1, 71 (Monograph). SDO146.

'(22) Settlement remains (667953 and 671947), originally two separate settlements but for long known as Pulston, lie on the E. side of the R. Cerne, S. of Forston.

The settlements are one or perhaps two of the Cernes in Domesday Book but they cannot be identified with certainty. Eyton (123-4) has suggested that Pulston was the Cerne belonging to the Count of Mortain (D.B. Vol. I, f.79a), of 2½ hides; if this is correct the recorded population was only two bordars, though six thegns had held it in the time of King Edward. The settlement is not recorded separately in the 1327 or 1333 Subsidy Rolls but it appears to be included under Forston where eleven taxpayers are listed. A chapel dedicated to All Saints existed there, and a chaplain was officiating as late as 1411 (Hutchins II, 546). In 1403 twelve 'messuages' are recorded (Hutchins, loc. cit.). In 1539 ten men are listed for Puston and Forston (L. & P., Hentry VIII, Vol. 14, Pt. I, pp.267-9). Desertion appears to have been complete by the 17th century for there is no record of Pulston in the Hearth Tax Assessment of 1662. However, Forston Grange (formerly Pulston Farm) and a number of post-1850 cottages around it still remain as the last part of Pulston to be inhabited (see Map of Pulston Farm by I. Taylor, 1770, D.C.R.O.).

Around Pulston Barn (17), the alleged site of the Chapel, are about 5 acres of remains. To the N. of the barn are at least four rectangular closes, cut back into the valley side, 17 yds. to 30 yds. wide and 30 yds. long, bounded by low banks of flint rubble 6 ins to 1½ ft. high. Irregular scoops 15 yds. across at the lower W. end of the closes, just above the river, may be the sites of former houses. S. of Pulston Barn are the fragmentary remains of at least two more closes and to the N. of Forston Grange are another three closes.

Another 5 acres of earthworks lie 700 yds. to the S.E. The remains, which were ploughed in 1964, consist of eight parallel closes at right angles to the R. Cerne, 50 yds. long and 12 yds. to 18 yds. wide, bounded by rounded banks of flint rubble 20 ft. wide and 1 ft. to 2 ft. high. Four of the closes have platforms cut into the upper ends. Extensive areas of flint rubble and fragmentary banks indicate the sites of former houses. Large quantities of pottery, 12th to 15th-century in date, have been picked up on the site.'

<2> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1963 (Map). SWX1540.

(SY 671946) Earthwork [NR]

<3> Beresford, M, and Hurst, J G, 1971, Deserted Medieval Villages, 186 (Monograph). SWX1568.

<4> Royal Air Force, 22-JAN-1948, RAF/CPE/UK/2431 4133-34 (Aerial Photograph). SDO20011.

<5> Royal Air Force, 09-MAR-1948, RAF/CPE/UK/2475 4122-23 (Aerial Photograph). SDO20012.

<6> Attrill, N J, Field Investigators Comments NJA, F1 NJA 09-MAR-81 (Unpublished document). SDO14743.

<7> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1983, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1983, 152 (Serial). SDO83.

'Medieval Pottery from Charminster Parish. Twelfth-/thirteen-[sic] century pottery has been recovered from the site of the deserted medieval village (SY 66679545), following a limited amount of surface disturbance (cf. RCHM, Dorset, iii (1970), 71, monument 22).'

<8> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1994, Medieval Village Research Group Index, PRN 445 (Index). SDO16386.

<9> Royal Air Force, 22-JAN-1948, RAF/CPE/UK/2431 4133-5 (Aerial Photograph). SDO10893.

<9> Royal Air Force, 27-OCT-1971, RAF/39/3817 0141-2 (Aerial Photograph). SDO10898.

<10> Royal Air Force, 09-MAR-1948, RAF/CPE/UK/2475 4228-9 (Aerial Photograph). SDO10897.

<11> National Record of the Historic Environment, 453292 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

<12> Environment Agency, 16-NOV-2021, LIDAR Environment Agency DTM (Aerial Photograph). SDO18034.

<13> Royal Air Force, 27-OCT-1971, RAF/39/3817 V 83 (Aerial Photograph). SDO20943.

Record last edited

Jan 15 2025 9:47AM