SDO12544 - The Proposed Development of New Parking Facilities, New Reception Area and Extension to Bulbury Woods Golf Course, Lytchett Minster, Dorset

A desk-based assessment of the archaeological implications of two planning applications at Bulbury Woods Golf Course has involved the study of available archaeological data relating to the area south of Bulbury Camp, Lytchett Minster, Dorset, which is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. The first application relates to the creation of additional car parking areas and new reception adjacent to the club house some 400m from the monument. The second involves the extension to the existing golf course immediately south of the site. The development proposals adjacent to the club house will involve only limited ground disturbance and are not considered to have implications for disturbance to significant archaeological remains. The golf course extension will involve localised ground disturbance, of up to 40mm depth, associated with the creation of greens, tees and bunkers in the vicinity of the site. This area can be shown to have been in arable cultivation for at least several centuries, and much of the area since the thirteenth century. A British Gas pipeline has crossed the area and will have also affected the survival of any archaeological deposits. As sthe new development proposals involve only very limited ground disturbance any effects on the Scheduled Ancient Monument are likely to be visual and limited in extent and will not affect the integrity of the enclosure itself. Moreover, while there is limited potential for further subsurface archaeological deposits in the area, it is considered unlikely that any extensive disturbance of these will take place during the development and use of the golf course extension.