Monument record MDO28121 - Later prehistoric enclosed settlement, Tarrant Rushton and Shapwick

A plough-levelled irregular polygonal ditched enclosure with multiple internal enclosures and pits are visible on aerial photographs. The enclosure straddles the modern boundary between Tarrant Rushton parish to the north and Shapwick parish to the south. It is considered to be of later prehistoric date and was digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AI&M Project.

A possible later prehistoric ditched enclosure is recorded as cropmarks on 2015 Historic England oblique aerial photographs. It encloses an elongated ‘D’ shaped area measuring about 140m by 160m and it is up to 230m at its widest part. It is also recorded on 2005 and 2018 Google Earth vertical aerial photographs. It is centred at ST 9458 0405. Within the enclosure there is a rectilinear ditched enclosure with a possible entrance in its SE facing side. It measures about 22m by 17m and is centred at ST 9458 0398. There are further circular and rectangular ditched enclosures (each measuring about 15m across) within the SW corner of the enclosure visible on the Google Earth 2018 aerial photographs. A post medieval field boundary crosses part of the enclosure and this is marked on the Ordnance Survey 1:2500 first edition map of 1888. <1-3> A plough-levelled irregular polygonal ditched enclosure measuring c235 metres north-south by c160 metres east-west, visible on aerial photographs dated 2005 <4>. The enclosure ditch comprises a series of angled sections, sometimes sinuous and sometimes forming sharply-defined corners, and there is some tentative indication of a slightly inturned entrance on the east side of the circuit. Internally there is a smaller sub-rectangular ditched enclosure measuring c22 by c18 metres in the central southern area of the main enclosure, and south of this are a number of circular, annular and penannular cropmarks that couldindicate subsurface remains of pits and roundhouses. Whilst the site is undated, the presence of such structures would suggest a likely date between the Late Bronze Age and Roman period. Externally, the north western side of the enclosure is contiguous with a sinuous and discontinuous boundary ditch that has not been mapped under this site number, but that can be traces from south west to north east across the target field; to the north east this joins large rectilinear field boundary. Another length of NNW-SSE aligned ditch lies just west of the enclosure. The record for this monument has been enhanced with support from Wessex Water. A plough-levelled irregular polygonal ditched enclosure with multiple internal enclosures and pits are visible on aerial photographs <4-6>. The enclosure straddles the modern boundary between Tarrant Rushton parish to the north and Shapwick parish to the south. Internal features include three rectilinear enclosures between 12m and 22m across and two ring ditches between 13 m and 15m across. Fragments of two other possible enclosures as well as numerous pits are also visible. A linear boundary ditch runs north for 250m from the northern corner of the enclosure towards the round barrow described in MDO5154 . The enclosed settlement is considered to be of later prehistoric date and was digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AI&M Project.

Record last edited

Oct 2 2023 1:18PM