Monument record MDO19866 - Sherborne, Castleton, Oborne, Poyntington, Goathill, Sandford Orcas (and Horethorne hundred, Somerset); co-axial field system.

A co-axial field system, partly fossilised in modern field and parish boundaries, has been identified through map regression and small scale excavation, encompassing a wide region. This area includes the parishes of Sherborne, Castleton, Oborne, Poyntington, Goathill and parts of Sandford Orcas in Dorset, as well as Horethorne hundred in South East Somerset.

A co-axial field system, partly fossilised in modern field and parish boundaries, has been identified through map regression and small scale excavation, encompassing a wide region. This area includes the parishes of Sherborne, Castleton, Oborne, Poyntington, Goathill and parts of Sandford Orcas in Dorset, as well as Horethorne hundred in South East Somerset. The field system has an approximate alignment for its long axis of 155 degrees and elements of it have been dated through excavation to at least the late Iron Age. [1] Barker first noted elements of the field system in alignments in Sherborne and suggested that they were Romano-British in date. A small excavation at 60 Cheap Street revealed two boundary features [D] and [F] on alignments of 65 and 155 degrees [2]. Keen also noted the alignments in the Sherborne region and suggested that they represented part of a planned Anglo-Saxon field system associated with the 8th century foundation of Sherborne Abbey. His dating was based primarily on the fact that the Marston Magna to Sherborne Road, which forms a major component of the field system, was recorded as a Herepath in 10th century charters [3]. Aston preferred a prehistoric date for this alignment [4] and subsequent research by Davey suggested that the field system encompassed much of Horethorne hundred in Somerset, as well as the Sherborne region. Excavations on elements of this system have shown them to be Iron Age to post-medieval in date, notably in the Templecombe area of Somerset [5] and in the Horsecastles area of Sherborne [6].

Record last edited

Oct 5 2007 3:38AM