Monument record MDO8375 - Deserted medieval settlement, Downshay Farm, Worth Matravers

As described by authority 1. Four closes and two fields, all separated by banks or by ditches mostly of less than 0.5m in height or depth. There are no building platforms. Originally part of Dunshay Manor, now part of Downshay Farm. Not of sufficient significance to warrant inclusion on OS plans. <3>

Earthworks associated with a deserted medieval settlement to the west of Downshay Farm, Worth Matravers. The features include possible house platforms with assiociated field boundaries and the plough-levelled remains of ridge and furrow. The site is visible as cropmarks and earthworks on aerial photographs taken in 1945/6. <4-6>. It was digitally plotted during the Wild Purbeck Mapping Project.

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 2 (Monograph). SDO149.

‘(33) Earthworks, remains of mediaeval settlement (around 97757973), lie some 370 yds. W. of Downshay Farm (21) which 'seems at one time to have been regarded as the site of the manor' (Hutchins I, 694). The remains extend N. from beneath a steep quarried slope on pasture falling gently N. to ground drained by a stream which flows W. towards Afflington; another stream borders them on the E. At the S. four contiguous flat rectangular platforms lie one below the other in a S. to N. line. They all measure about 70 ft. from E. to W. and from S. to N. measure 48 ft., 24 ft., 27 ft., and 24 ft. The last three are defined by scarps varying from 9 ins. to 3½ ft. high.
Parallel banks 70 ft. apart continue N. from the E. and W. sides of the N. platform, but with no sign of subdivision or levelling between them. The W. bank, about 12 ft. wide and only a few inches high, disappears after about 60 yds. The E. bank increases in size as it approaches the stream, where it ends, to about 16 ft. wide and 3½ ft. high with a flat top 4 ft. across. (R.A.F. V.A.P. CPE/UK 1821: 5405.)’

<2> Papworth, M D J, Trust for Wessex Archaeology, 1983, Isle of Purbeck Survey, IOP 265 (Index). SDO147.

‘Site lies in a field occasionally ploughed and in ley pasture when visited. OS SY97NE2. 7/7/C.’

<3> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, F1 NVQ 25-APR-86 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<4> Royal Air Force, 04-NOV-1946, RAF/CPE/UK/1821 5405-6 (Aerial Photograph). SDO13383.

<5> Royal Air Force, 14-MAR-1945, RAF 106G/LA/194 289-90 (Aerial Photograph). SDO13384.

<6> Royal Air Force, 20-MAR-1945, RAF 106G/LA/187 4009-10 (Aerial Photograph). SDO13385.

<7> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/093 RCHME Inventory: Dorset II (South-East) (Unpublished document). SDO17434.

<8> National Record of the Historic Environment, 456493 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Apr 21 2023 4:36PM