Monument record MWX584 - Prehistoric field system on Rings Hill, Tyneham

The remains of an Iron Age/Romano-British field system. A group of dispersed linear and rectilinear banks and ditches are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs and Lidar imagery of Rings Hill. They are considered likely to be the remains of some of this late prehistoric field system.

Very disturbed Celtic Fields appear on about 100 acres of north slope between Rings Hill and Povington Hill with isolated and slight scarps occurring on the corresponding south slope. The fields are of two types and in two blocks. (i). Flowers Barrow. 30 acres of squarish, small fields, some irregular, marked by lynchets between about 4-10ft high and arranged along base-lines which mostly follow the contour. The fields also extended north and east to well below the natural shoulder of the ridge. (ii) Whiteway and Povington Hills. Fields over 20 acres are arranged in regular manner with parallel base lines 20-40 yards apart, up and down the slope. These are marked by slight banks or lynchets about 1ft high in places running unbroken for at least 170 yards. Apart from some very slight cross-divisions, there are some high lynchets; these may belong partly to earlier fields. Since there are indications that this regular pattern has been imposed on fields of the type seen in block (i). Traces of irregular fields are more clear further east on Povington Hill, extending over 25 acres, of the regular, banked type inserted among them. (see plan with SY 88 SE 21 for part of this field system). <1>

Field investigation in 1981 showed the fields to be barely visible around Flowers Barrow, and scant traces surviving on Whiteway and Povington Hills. <2>.

A group of dispersed linear and rectilinear banks and ditches are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs (3-6) and Lidar imagery (7-8) of Rings Hill. They are considered likely to be the remains of some of the late prehistoric field system described above. These features were digitally plotted during the South West Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey (Dorset).

The north-eastern end of the field system is visible on aerial photographs (9-13) and was digtially plotted during the Wild Purbeck Mapping Project.

Mr Godden Court Haven Langton Herring (Unspecified Type). SWX8222.

<1> Royal Air Force, RAF/CPE/UK/1821 2421-25 and 5425-28 (Aerial Photograph). SWX2611.

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

‘Group (17): Rings Hill to Povington Hill (SY 88 SE; 859807–885812), in East Lulworth and Tyneham parishes. 'Celtic' fields appear on about 100 acres of the N. slope of the W. end of the Purbeck Hills. In addition, isolated and slight scarps occur on the corresponding S. slope. Almost all are in an area generally inaccessible and very disturbed so that, although extensive, the pattern cannot be worked out in detail. Ploughing of the hill-top, marked in places by narrow rig, has destroyed all but a few lynchets there. The fields are of two types and in two blocks.
(i) Flower's Barrow, immediately N.W. and N.E. of (see Hill-forts, E. Lulworth (40), Plate 215). On a slope of up to 23° are 30 acres with squarish, small fields (some of about ⅓ acre), some irregular, marked by lynchets between about 4 ft. and 10 ft. high and arranged along base-lines which mostly follow the contour. Two 'base-lines' appear to meet Flower's Barrow, one at the N.W. angle, the other at the N.E. angle of the first-phase hill-fort. The fields also extended N. and E. from this latter point to well below the natural shoulder of the ridge.
(ii) Whiteway and Povington Hills. Fields over 20 acres are arranged in regular manner with parallel base-lines 20–40 yds. apart, up and down the slope (Fig. in pocket, Part 2; Plate 233). These are marked by slight banks or lynchets about 1 ft. high, in places running unbroken for at least 170 yds. Apart from some very slight cross-divisions there are some higher lynchets. These may belong partly to earlier fields, since there are indications that this regular pattern has been imposed on fields of the type of block (i). One such field is just outside this block, at 873811. Traces of irregular fields are more clear further E., on Povington Hill, extending over 25 acres but with suggestions of the regular, banked type inserted among them. (R.A.F. V.A.P. CPE/UK 1821: 2421–5; 5425–8.)’

<2> Attrill, N J, Field Investigators Comments NJA, F1 NJA 27-AUG-81 (Unpublished document). SDO14743.

'The fields are now barely visible in area (i) and scant traces only are visible in area (ii).'

<3> Royal Air Force, 27-MAR-1945, RAF 106G/LA/200 F8 2001-2 (Aerial Photograph). SDO12951.

<4> Royal Air Force, 21-JAN-1945, RAF 106G/LA/105 2028-29 (Aerial Photograph). SDO12953.

<5> Royal Air Force, 04-NOV-1946, RAF/CPE/UK/1824 F20 3259-60 (Aerial Photograph). SDO12950.

<6> Channel Coastal Observatory, 15-OCT-2010, CCO Aerial Photographic Coverage 2009 (Aerial Photograph). SDO12622.

<7> Channel Coastal Observatory, 23-MAR-2008, Lidar (Photograph). SDO12878.

<8> Channel Coastal Observatory, 25-FEB-2009, Lidar (Aerial Photograph). SDO12879.

<9> Royal Air Force, 04-NOV-1946, RAF/CPE/UK/1824 4238-9 (Aerial Photograph). SDO13711.

<10> Royal Air Force, 18-FEB-1970, RAF 58/0254 0011-3 (Aerial Photograph). SDO13704.

<11> XX-XXX-XXXX, NMR 10190/ORACLE10 (NMR SY8881/1) (Aerial Photograph). SDO13715.

<12> Royal Air Force, 04-NOV-1946, RAF/CPE/UK/1824 4236-7 (Aerial Photograph). SDO13716.

<13> Royal Air Force, 27-MAR-1945, RAF 106G/LA/105 1030-1 (Aerial Photograph). SDO13717.

<14> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/093 RCHME Inventory: Dorset II (South-East) (Unpublished document). SDO17434.

<15> National Record of the Historic Environment, 455444 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Sep 6 2024 4:39PM