Monument record MDO8265 - Prehistoric field system, West Lulworth

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 629 (Monograph). SDO150.

‘Group (15): Chaldon Herring, West Lulworth and Winfrith Newburgh (SY 78 SE, 88 SW; 784808– 786819–823828–808803; Plate 234), includes about 850 acres of 'Celtic' fields. Traces of others, almost destroyed by mediaeval and later ploughing, occur to the E., around Hambury Tout (815805), and between blocks (i–iii) below, suggesting that they were formerly continuous. All the remains lie between 100 ft. and 500 ft. above O.D. on chalk, 'angular flint gravel', slurry (in the combe bottoms), or sands and clays of the Reading Beds. Lynchets up to 12 ft. high indicate long cultivation and there is also evidence, especially in block (i), for change and development within the 'Celtic' field phase. Major boundary lines appear in block (iii) and in block (i), which is the most extensive and has a large number of complete fields. Strip lynchets from Chaldon Herring (24), and Winfrith Newburgh (30), lie partly on 'Celtic' fields at the limits of the open fields. There are no certain settlements but a number of possible areas of settlement are suggested in blocks (i) and (iii). The Late Bronze Age 'Lulworth hoard' was found somewhere in block (ii) during flint quarrying. The so-called 'flintfilled hollows' which occur within all blocks are probably the remains of such quarrying, frequently into lynchets and sometimes into piles of flint at field angles. Other evidence of relatively recent activity is marked by narrow rig, by brick and rubble foundations on the site of Warren House (79238106), and by tile, brick and glazed pottery at the head of Vicarage Bottom.
… (iii) Daggers Gate and Marley Bottom. 'Celtic' field remains, in the combe and on the downland to either side, are continuous for over 270 acres, from 814811, N. of Daggers Gate, to 813832 in Marley Bottom, S. of Winfrith Newburgh. They include many high lynchets, but complete original fields have all been broken down. Some field banks are packed with flint and in the combe bottom E. from 813827 there is a series of small, often circular, quarries dug into the lynchets. Most of the downland was arable on the Tithe Maps but this cannot be associated certainly with surviving narrow rig.
A track, partly double-lyncheted with tread 16 ft. wide and lower scarp 8 ft. high, runs S.E. for 600 yds. from 818829 on the E. of the block. There are faint indications of another track approaching the possible settlement area (e). A continuous boundary line, formed by a massive but ploughed-down scarp, runs S. for ½ mile from about 809827, S.W. of Marley Wood.
(e) Settlement is suggested at 815818, where surviving fields on the S.-facing slope of a dry valley are different in shape and size from most of those around. Above them to the S.W., air photographs show enclosures, one with a curved side skirted by a track from the W., on relatively flat ground. The whole covers about 3 acres. (R.A.F. V.A.P. CPE/UK 1821: 2434–41.)’

Record last edited

Jan 29 2016 2:45PM