SDO16969 - Humby's Stock Coppice Banjo Enclosure SAM 785, Sixpenny Handley, Dorset. Archaeological Evaluation

This report outlines the results of an archaeological evaluation undertaken by Bournemouth Archaeology at Humby's Coppice banjo enclosure, Sixpenny Handley, Dorset (SAM 785). The banjo enclosure, and associated cropmark/geophysical features were inadvertently damaged during the installation of a water pipe in 2008 and this project was designed to assess the extent of this damage and provide information to further our understanding of these features. Six trial trenches were excavated and these have confirmed the position of the water pipe trench and the places where archaeological features have been damaged. Controlled investigation of the banjo enclosure outer ditch, a large pit, a track way and a square-shaped enclosure that was previously believed to represent a 'Celtic field system' was undertaken to create a record of the dimensions, shape and character of these features. Despite an absence of datable finds these features are believed to be associated and part of an enclosure complex, comparisons of which date to the period spanning the middle to late Iron Age 400BC - 43AD.