Monument record MWX850 - Cists, Whitecliff Farm, Swanage

Two Romano-British stone-lined cists found in the cliff near Whitecliff Farm and Centred at SZ035806 by Calkin. <1>

SZ 031798 "Swanage Bay. Inhumation burials were exposed in 1877 in a cliff fall about 1/2 mile north of Swanage. Of two covered and partly floored cists of stone slabs, about 3 feet apart at a depth of 18 inches, one about 2 1/2 feet long contained fragmentary bones of a child, the other, some 3 feet long, probably the same. Large nails in both graves, one with oak (?) fibres, suggested wooden coffins, perhaps of boards 2 inches thick. One cist contained one or two sherds of black ware. The remains were near the `North Ledge', presumably the Tanville Ledges offshore near Highcliffe Road, New Swanage.

Objects, untraced, were formerly in Mowlem Institute, Swanage." (Included under `Roman Remains'). <2>

A Roman or early Medieval date has been suggested for the burials. <3>

<1> Calkin, J B, 1949, Annotated Record Map Corr. 6 (J B Calkin 1949) (Map). SWX2587.

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 611-612 (Monograph). SDO150.

<2.1> The Times, 23 Aug 1877 (Serial). SWX3285.

<2.2> Robinson, C E, 1882, A Royal Waren, Picturesque Rambles in the Vale of Purbeck, 101 (Monograph). SWX8476.

<3> Cherryson, A K, 2006, Gazetteer of Early Medieval Sites, 42 (Unpublished document). SDO17464.

<4> National Record of the Historic Environment, 457471 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

<5> National Record of the Historic Environment, 457630 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jan 13 2024 7:35AM