Monument record MDO871 - Deserted settlement of Putton, Chickerell

Medieval settlement of Putton, first documented in 1237. Field boundaries possibly associated with the settlement are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs. Pottery mainly 14th - 15th century in date was recovered during pipeline construction. An archaeological evaluation carried out in 2003 in connection with proposed development recorded pits and ditches likely to be associated with the settlement, and recovered pottery ranging in date from the eleventh to the fifteenth century.

Of the features described by the RCHM <1>, only the hollow-way and the scarp of two closes one to the W and one to the E, are identifiable. There are minor vague and unsurveyable scarps in the field, which is of a very uneven nature, having been trenched for pipes in several places in recent years. Closes surveyed at 1:2500 on permatrace. <3>

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 41 (Monograph). SDO150.

‘(11) SETTLEMENT REMAINS at Putton (64958035) lie 700 yds. S.E. of St. Mary’s church on ground sloping gently E. and N. at about 100 ft. above O.D. The first known reference to Putton is in 1237 (Fägersten, 153).

Several small banked and scarped closes cover some 3 acres around a hollow-way in pasture immediately E. of Putton Lane opposite Fairfield House. The hollow-way, up to 30 ft. wide and 4 ft. deep, runs N. for 100 yds. from the angle in the road; another apparent hollow-way runs up to this angle from the E. Three closes W. of the N. to S. hollow-way are each of about 1/5 acre and roughly square; two to the E., about 75 ft. and 105 ft. wide, seem originally to have been about 300 ft. long. Pottery from pipe trenches immediately N. of the remains is largely of the 14th and 15th centuries though some might be 16th-century. Much stone rubble and variations in the depth of loam over the clay subsoil were noted in one of these trenches.

Hedgerows preserve a pattern of enclosed strip fields E. and S.E. of the earthworks. Some of these fields apparently formed part of ‘Putton Plain’, completely enclosed by 1792. There were also an East Field and a West Field (Enclosure award, but no map, in D.C.R.O.; R.A.F. V.A.P. CPE/UK 1821: 2458.)’

<1.1> Royal Air Force, 04-NOV-1946, RAF/CPE/UK/1821 2458-9 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18062.

<2> Royal Air Force, 04-MAY-1942, RAF/HLA/521 V 6007-8 (Aerial Photograph). SDO12110.

<3> Barton, J G, Various, Field Investigators Comments JGB, F1 JGB 24-APR-80 (Unpublished document). SDO11900.

<4> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/093 RCHME Inventory: Dorset II (South-East) (Unpublished document). SDO17434.

<5> Kenyon, D, 2013, Land at Lower Putton Lane, Chickerell, Dorset. Archaeological Evaluation (Unpublished document). SDO13374.

<6> Randall, C, 2019, Land off Putton Lane, Chickerell, Weymouth, Dorset. Archaeological Excavation Assessment Report (Unpublished document). SDO17042.

<7> Randall, C, 2020, Anciently a manor. Excavation of a medieval site at Lower Putton Lane, Chickerell, Dorset (Monograph). SDO17043.

<8> National Record of the Historic Environment, 452817 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Aug 22 2024 4:52PM