Monument record MDO857 - Prehistoric field system, Cheselbourne and Dewlish

'Celtic' fields, very disturbed, are traceable on three areas of Whitelands Down in Dewlish and Cheselbourne parishes. An extensive system of bank and ditched field boundaries is visible as cropmarks and earthworks on aerial photographs and lidar imagery. They extend from the settlement described in MDO999 on Whitelands Down eastwards to Devil's Brook covering an area of over 72 hectares.

(Centred at SY 77209975). Field system plotted from air photographs. 1>

Centred at ST 77300057. Visible on air photographs at 'A' - ST 77170085, and at 'B' - ST 77540047, fairly strong though rather scattered Iron Age/Romano-British type lynchets situated for the most part on an Eastern slope. Grass covered with Whitelands Down under the plough. The system is mutilated at ST 77300040 by later tracks and at A the lynchets appear to be superimposed by Medieval strip lynchets.

East of the stream at B is the Western boundary of a well-preserved grass covered Iron Age/Romano-British type field system. <2>

An extensive system of bank and ditched field boundaries is visible as cropmarks and earthworks on aerial photographs and lidar imagery. They extend from the settlement described in MDO999 on Whitelands Down eastwards to Devil's Brook covering an area of over 72 hectares <5-6>.

<1> Atkinson, R J C, 1949, spec 6 inch (RJCA 1.3.49) (Map). SWX1583.

<2> Rigg, J, Field Investigators Comments JR, F1 JR 26-AUG-55 (Unpublished document). SWX1255.

<2.1> Royal Air Force, 11-04-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1974 2361 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17641.

<2.2> Royal Air Force, 11-JUN-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/2150 3173-4 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17643.

<3> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 2, 332-333 (Monograph). SDO136.

‘Group (47): Whitelands Down (Cheselbourne and Dewlish). 'Celtic' fields, very disturbed, are traceable on three areas of Whitelands Down in Dewlish and Cheselbourne parishes between under 300 ft. and over 400 ft. O.D. About 30 acres lie between SY 770993 and ST 773002; some 12 acres lie on the W.-facing slopes N.E. of Chebbard Farm, about 767986; 15 acres lie on ground falling S.E. towards Dewlish Mill, at 778992. There is a possible settlement (a) in the first-mentioned block, at 770996. There is much evidence for past ploughing; it includes narrow ridge-and-furrow, which appears to have lain over 'Celtic' fields on Whitelands Down, 773001. (CPE/UK 1934: 1150.)

Details on the Tithe Map (c. 1843) indicate that 'Cheselbourne East Field', at N.W., and other areas to S. and E. were formerly ploughed. Most of the area is modern arable showing spreads of flints and patches of clayey loam. A series of hollow-ways rises W.N.W. from the road junction at 77430030, on the line of Streetway Lane, with very faint remains of 'Celtic' fields to N. and S. At the S.E. the modern road N. of Dewlish can be seen to cross 'Celtic' field lynchets which terminate against a scarp up to 6 ft. high bordering the Devil's Brook. Only this stream and the narrow flat band of land along it separate this group from Group (48).

Possible settlement at (a), on the top and on the gently falling E. slope of a spur S. of Callway Lane, is suggested by a 100 yd. length of track, 18 ft. wide, with scarp uphill 3 ft. high and downhill 6 ft. high, which runs S., with a pronounced bow E. not required by the lie of the land, from about 77019965, where it was probably blocked by Callway Lane. South of this section of track its downhill side seems to describe a further bow to the S.W., the uphill side forming a chord about 80 yds. long across it. There are other suggestions, on air photographs, of a curiously sinuous continuation S. The very disturbed area W. of the track contained scarps among which, at 76959954, against the N. side of a hedgerow, was a curved flinty bank (b), possibly the remains of a dished circle, some 30 ft. across, cut by the hedgerow.
Fields are generally too broken to declare original sizes, but there is a notably regular pattern of long scarps laid off either side of a base line, around 773999. Subdivisions may have been destroyed, but field widths ranged from 30 yds. to 55 yds.
Air photographs: CPE/UK 1934: 1150–3; 1974: 2361–3.’

<4> National Record of the Historic Environment, 201848 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

<5> Environment Agency, 15-DEC-2023, LIDAR Environment Agency DTM (Aerial Photograph). SDO20691.

<6> Royal Air Force, 11-APR-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1974 FS 2361 (Aerial Photograph). SDO20868.

Record last edited

Aug 11 2024 6:16PM