Monument record MDO1418 - Prehistoric dyke on Black Down, Littlebredy

A linear dyke within a prehistoric field system, and associated with a small enclosure. Excavations at the point where the dyke and the enclosure meet revealed a ditch containing a few sherds of coarse undecorated pottery, suggesting a possible Late Bronze Age date.

'(66) Linear dyke, on Black Down (SY 68 NW; 60078795 to 60568793), within Ancient Field Group (3), runs E.-W. for 530 yds. from just below 700 ft. to about 575 ft. O.D. (Fig. opp. p. 624). To the W. if passes into Little Bredy parish where a small enclosure (Dorset I, Little Bredy (6) is attached to it. W. of the enclosure it extends downhill along the N.-facing slope of a re-entrant valley, first as a ditch with a bank on the S. side, then as a soil-mark, then as a depression 15 ft. wide, and finally as a narrow sloping terrace which fades into the hillside below a 'Celtic' field scarp. E. of the enclosure after a 14 yd. gap, perhaps due to quarrying, the dyke continues uphill, first as a depression then, E. of the parish boundary, as a ditch with a bank on its N. side. Small-scale excavations on the dyke where it forms part of the enclosure (by R.C.H.M. in 1956) showed that the bank was 12 ft. across and only 1 ft. high, while the ditch was 9 ft. across the top, 2 ft. across the bottom and 3 ft. deep. A few coarse undecorated sherds from the ditch filling might indicate a date in the Late Bronze Age.' {1}

Record last edited

Mar 21 2013 3:26PM