Monument record MDO1960 - Enclosure on Lower Down, Piddletrenthide

An enclosure of Iron Age/Romano-British date.

This enclosure is on a gentle south facing slope, the south side being on the valley bottom. Its SE angle cuts through an E-W lynchet which is probably part of the adjoining Iron Age/Romano-British field system (ST 60 SE 64), dating the enclosure to the Iron Age or later. <2> Enclosure (693011), on Lower Down, lies at about 450 ft above OD on a gentle slope on the N side of a dry valley. An area of 1 1/2 acres with straight sides of unequal length is bounded by a bank 3 1/2 ft high and 10 ft wide, with an external ditch 1 1/2 ft deep and of similar width, except on part of S side where a double scarp 3 ft high replaces the bank. This scarp is not connected with a similar scarp to the E, in the same alignment but at a lower level; the latter is apparently the result of flint digging. An entrance 15 ft wide occurs in the S side of the enclosure and has a circular, enbanked pond 4 ft deep outside it. Internal features include traces of a scarped platform near the centre of W side, and a semicircular scarp, 1 1/2 ft high and 30 ft across, 30 yds E of the entrance; both features are probably building sites. Lying against the N side is a broad terrace 40 ft wide and 116 ft long with a scarp 10 ft high on the S. The enclosure is probably later than the fragmentary 'Celtic' fields (Group 38) in the area (Dorset Procs XXXII (1912), 41). <4> Although the outline of this earthwork is clearly visible at a distance, there are no surveyable remains, the feature having been ploughed-out. The course of the ditch is marked by a band of sparse, brownish grass and that of the bank by green, richer grass. The scarp of the terrace on the north side of the interior remains, but reduced to a height of 0.8m, covered in nettles. 1:2500 revised - (Detail deleted). <5>

Record last edited

Nov 25 2022 9:51AM