Monument record MDO768 - Romano-British settlement on Charlton Higher Down, Charminster

A settlement of late Iron Age and Romano-British date, associated with trackways and an extensive field system. In 1970 this monument was reported as consisting of seven hollows or platforms. Surface finds from the area include pottery from the 1st to 4th centuries, tile and worked stone. Features associated with the settlement, including enclosures and hollows, and part of a ditched and banked trackway through the centre, are visible as soilmarks and earthworks on aerial photographs and current lidar imagery and were digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Cerne and Piddle Valleys AIM project.

(Centred SY 698954). `Celtic' fields, settlement and other remains. … A settlement on Charlton Higher Down (see below) is at the junction of local roads associated with the 'Celtic' fields. … The settlement, late Iron Age and Romano-British, on Charlton Higher Down (694956), occupies about 4 acres in the corner of a modern field adjoining the Piddlehinton boundary and has been much reduced by ploughing. The settlement lies at 475ft OD on the ridge of a spur sloping gently E from the high ground between the valleys of the Cerne and the Piddle. The main part consists of some seven platforms or hollows set into the slope and surrounded on all but the S by banks confining them within about 1 1/4 acres. A track running S from these platforms is bordered on the E by a series of small, irregular, terraced areas. It joins a major through track running N-S along the E side of the settlement and between it and the 'Celtic' fields; this in turn is joined by a track from the E. Finds from the platforms and terraces, and from the area E of the main trackway, include sherds in the Iron Age tradition, Samian and coarse pottery from the C1st to C4th, tile and worked stone. <4>

The settlement at SY 694955 has been ploughed down and little resembles the plan of <4>. Its amorphous remains lie in pasture and are confined to the northwest of the site where there are some banks averaging 13.0m wide and 0.4m high. <6>

Features associated with the settlement, including enclosures and hollows, and part of a ditched and banked trackway through the centre, are visible as soilmarks and earthworks on aerial photographs and current lidar imagery and were digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Cerne and Piddle Valleys AIM project. Some of the linear banks might be part of an adjacent later prehistoric field system; it is unclear from the available aerial sources where the settlement finishes and the field system begins. Several additional linear ditches running across the settlement appear to overlie the earlier features and might be parts of later trackways, recorded under MDO48989, although it is possible these are in fact also earlier features associated with the settlement. <8, 9>

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1953, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1952, 90 (Serial). SDO52.

‘(ii) Nucleus of settlement, Area II; SY(30)/69379559. (D.C.M. 1952.63). R.B. tile or brick fragment; Samian (form 37); normal R.B. coarse ware. Also some sherds of Early Iron Age fabric as in Area I; they have large grits in the paste, some of which have leached out, leaving a pitted surface.’ and ‘(iii) Area III, S.E. of nucleus of settlement and on south side of ancient track leading eastwards towards Little Piddle Down; SY(30)/69499557. (D.C.M. 1953.9). This area bounded by ancient trackways on the north and west sides, by a field lynchet on the south, and by a relatively modern marl-pit hollow on the east side, was prolific of sherds.
Earthenware tile fragments (including one imbrex, from south of the lynchet); Samian; ordinary R.B. coarse ware, including a cooking pot sherd with fairly widely-splayed cavetto-rim. The only sherd of pre-Roman form was a flattened rim of a jar (cf. ‘Maiden Castle’, nos. 225-6, Iron Age C).’

<2> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1953, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1952, 89-91 (Serial). SDO52.

<3> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1963 (Map). SWX1540.

(SY 694955) Settlement (NR) (site of) (NAT)

<4> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 1, 72-73 (Monograph). SDO146.

'(30) Settlement, late Iron Age and Romano-British, on Charlton Higher Down (694956), is associated with trackways and an extensive area of 'Celtic' fields (Group 36); it occupies about 4 acres in the corner of a modern field adjoining the Piddlehinton boundary and has been much reduced by ploughing. The settlement lies at 475 ft. O.D. on the ridge of a spur sloping gently E. from the high ground between the valleys of the Cerne and the Piddle. The main part consists of some seven platforms or hollows set into the slope and surrounded on all but the S. by banks confining them within about 1¼ acres. A track running S. from these platforms is bordered on the E. by a series of small, irregular, terraced areas. It joins a major through track running N.-S. along the E. side of the settlement, and between it and the 'Celtic' fields; this in turn is joined by a track from the E. Finds from the platforms and terraces, and from the area E. of the main trackway, include sherds in the Iron Age tradition, samian and coarse pottery from the 1st to 4th centuries, tile and worked stone (Dorset Procs. LXXIV (1952), 89-91).'

<5> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey 1:10,000 scale map, 1975 (Map). SDO17396.

(SY 694955) Settlement (NR) (site of) (NAT)

<6> Attrill, N J, Field Investigators Comments NJA, F1 NJA 05-JAN-81 (Unpublished document). SDO14743.

<7> National Record of the Historic Environment, 452973 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

<8> National Monuments Record, 08-APR-1976, NMR 915/34-35 (Aerial Photograph). SDO21012.

<9> Environment Agency, 16-NOV-2021, LIDAR Environment Agency DTM (Aerial Photograph). SDO18034.

Record last edited

Oct 24 2024 4:14PM