Monument record MDO3489 - Enclosure in Bowley's Plantation, Crossways

A roughly rectangular enclosure which survives as an earthwork within the plantation but has been ploughed away to the west. In 1970 the outer bank of the enclosure was recorded as 16 feet across and 4½ feet high, and the inner bank 15 feet across and 1 foot high above the interior. There appears to have been one original entrance, on the east side of th enclosure. Excavations by Norman Field in 1959 and 1960 showed that the ditch outside the outer bank was V-shaped and 6 feet deep, while pollen analysis indicated an open landscape at the time of construction.

(Centred at SY 76908798) Camp (OE) (1) Only the part of this earthwork which falls within the plantation could be properly investigated; the remainder being under crops, and from a cursory examination, almost ploughed out. The investigated section of the enclosure consists of two low spread banks with a medial ditch. The outer bank is more pronounced than the inner one. A causewayed entrance exists on the east side. No dateable evidence such as pottery was found within the enclosure, and its period and purpose are difficult to determine from the visible remains. While of similar size to the hilltop and valley enclosures found on the downland a few miles to the N, the presence of an outer bank is unusual, apart from its situation upon a gravel plateau with the consequent heath-type vegetation. The possibility of a moat cannot be overlooked but again the situation is poor, there is no stream to feed it, and for a dry moat it appears to be too small. In short any definite evidence for classification can probably only be deduced from excavation of the site. (2) Iron Age material from Bowley's Plantation. Two complete IA 'C' bowls (similar to Maiden Castle 186 and 187) were recovered by Messrs Field and Bowen of the RCHM from under the tumble of the bank of the earthwork, just below the pre-bank surface, at Bowley's Plantation. One of the pots contained a purplish deposit now being examined at the MOW laboratory. (5) "Native vessels, Iron Age 'C' or early Romano-British, were found outside and in the ditch of an enclosure at Bowley's Plantation". (8) Ancient Enclosure (NAT) - Unrevised detail. (4) Earthwork (NR) - Revised detail. (9) The part of the earthwork within Bowley's Plantation is as described in the OS field report of 1954, (2) and generally well preserved. The outer slope of the outer bank on the east side is now crumbling down the vertical face of disused gravel - workings. The portion of the enclosure in the arable field on the west, is virtually ploughed out; only a faint and unsurveyable ground swelling being visible. Published Survey (1:2500) revised on permatrace. (11) SY 769880. Earthwork in Bowley's Plantation. Scheduled. (Only that part of the earthwork within the plantation is scheduled. (3, 10)

Record last edited

Jul 4 2024 10:34AM