EDO7183 - Kingston Lacy Beech Avenue/Swan Way ring ditch, Shapwick; excavation 1988

Part of this monument was excavated in 1988 in advance of the planting of the outer beech avenue. Two 6m wide arcs of the ditch were excavated. Both measured 4.2m wide and 1.7m deep. The 50m long section of ring interior, uncovered during the excavation, contained no archaeological features and the bedrock here had been deeply scored by ploughing. Pottery finds from the site were Middle Bronze Age and a fragment of human pelvis indicated that the site had some form of mortuary use. This site is possibly the Badbury Barrow described by Austen 'five miles from Wimborne in the immediate neighbourhood of Badbury Camp and upon the road leading to Blandford; in 1846 when it was in the process of being levelled.