Monument record MWX2860 - Possible Late Bronze Age field system, Bearwood Junior School, Wheelers Lane, Poole

A number of ditches of probable Late Bronze Age date were observed during archaeological watching briefs by Wessex Archaeology in 1994. These ditches appear to form part of a field system, other previous parts of which had been dated to the Iron Age and Roman periods.

A watching brief undertaken by Wessex Archaeology during groundworks to form a new playing field at Bearwood Primary School in 1994 revealed traces of a number of linear ditches. The monitoring conditions did not allow all to be investigated and properly identified. Three ditches were recorded in detail. All were aligned in a NNW-SSE or WSW-ENE orientation. They remained as shallow features with a rounded U-shaped profile, filled with sandy loam. A small quantity of probable Late Bronze Age pottery was recovered from one of these ditches. (1)

These ditches occur within an area previously identified as part of an Iron Age/Roman field system, suggesting that this field system contains elements of more than one date. (2)

A further possible part of this field system was recorded during a subsequent watching brief by Wessex Archaeology during the construction of an extension to the school. Two short lengths of ditch, one in a similar orientation to those discovered earlier, containing worked or burnt flint were suggested as being prehistoric in date. (3)

<1> Beamish, H F, 1994, Bearwood Junior School, Poole, Dorset. Archaeological Watching Brief. August 1994, 4-5 (Unpublished document). SWX8355.

Three definite features were noted: ditches 101, 103 and 105. A number of probable linear features were detected but were not confirmed. However, their locations and alignments accord with positively identified features.

Ditch 103 was a rounded 'U' profile feature upt ot 0.4 m deep and filled with a single fill of a grey-brown sandy loam and produced finds of Late Bronze Age pottery and a piece of red sandstone. No other finds were recovered from stratified contexts. Ditch 101 was almost identical in terms of profile and fill, but produced no finds.

Ditch 105 was severly truncated, surviving to a depth of only 0.1 m but it is possible that some of this truncation may have occurred during the machine-stripping. The profile was impossible to determine securely from such limited evidence but the fill appeared to be the same sandy loam as noted in 101 and 103.

<2> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1994, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1993, 131 (Serial). SDO93.

The ditches identified during the watching brief are likely to be part of the same system as that previously recorded at the school. No firm dating evidence was recovered in that work, only a single unstratifed Late Iron Age sherd was found. In view of the Iron Age/Romano-British date ascribed to the field system in White's Pit, the ditches at Bearwood School were tentatively suggested to be of that date. However, the pottery from ditch 103 in the current work suggests that a Late Bronze Age date is possible and that what was originally thought to be a single field system may be parts of an archaeological palimpsest.

<3> Butterworth, C and Montague, R, 1995, Bearwood Junior School, Poole, Dorset. Archaeological Watching Brief February 1995, 7 (Unpublished document). SWX8331.

Ditch 705 (=112, 210), which produced two worked flints (flakes), andditch 713, from which burnt flint only was recovered, may also be prehistoric although this is by no means certain. The relationship of the ditches was not established but their different alignments suggest that they are unlikely to be contemporary. It may be of significance that ditches 713 and 103 are on approximately the same alignment.

Record last edited

Dec 2 2019 1:56PM