Monument record MDO8669 - Mill Plain, Christchurch; possible late prehistoric settlement and cremations

Numerous sherds of Iron Age A, B, and C pottery and a Belgic handled beaker containing a fibula were found at Mill Plain, Christchurch during gravel digging there. Mill Plain lies on the south-east side of Lower Close and is bounded by Mill Road, Fairmile Road and the railway. Bronze Age knives arrowheads and pottery as well as Iron age pottery and brooch have also been found. Romano-British artefacts including coins, pottery, quern, brooch and an urn containing a cremation have all been discovered in the gravel working site. The geology in the area consists of Terrace 2 or Terrace 4.

Mill Plain lies on the south-east side of Lower Close and is bounded by Mill Road, Fairmile Road and the railway. Gravel was worked here intermittently between 1909 and 1934; most of the finds being in the Druitt collection. These show evidence of occupation during the Bronze Age and of a small settlement occupation including many thousands of RB pottery fragments. Palaeolithic - 96 hand axes (Acheulian) Mesolithic - microliths, two flint picks, two transverse arrow-heads. Monument Periods And Types - (1-2)
Furthermore, three MBA collared urns and a LIA 'Belgic' handled beaker containing a bronze fibula suggest the presenceof a late prehistoric cremation cemetery or urnfield on the site (1).

Calkin, J B, Catalogue of Herbert Druitt's Collection of Local Prehistoric and R-B Antiquities (Index). SWX3966.

National Record of the Historic Environment, 458530 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Woodhouse, W C, Various, Field Investigators Comments WCW, F1 WCW 12-JUL-54 (Unpublished document). SWX3798.

<2> Woodhouse, W C, Various, Field Investigators Comments WCW, F2 WCW 15-JUL-54 (Unpublished document). SWX3798.

Record last edited

Nov 24 2023 7:18PM