Monument record MDO3492 - Linear dyke on Owermoigne Heath, Crossways

An earthwork bank and ditch running roughly north south along the western edge of a slight plateau. This monument was described in 1970 as being around 270 feet long with the bank about 18 feet wide and the ditch 14 feet wide, with a modern break at the centre. Evidence from aerial photographs suggests that this monument was once longer, as the bank and ditch of the present field boundary follow the line of the earthwork in places. In 1989 construction of a pipeline cut a section through the field boundary and revealed that the present shallow field bank and ditch was preceded by a substantial, V-profiled ditch. No dating evidence was recovered from the ditch fills.

An earthwork bank and ditch running roughly north south along the western edge of a slight plateau. This monument was described in 1970 as being around 270 feet long with the bank about 18 feet wide and the ditch 14 feet wide, with a modern break at the centre. Evidence from aerial photographs suggests that this monument was once longer, as the bank and ditch of the present field boundary follow the line of the earthwork in places. In 1989 construction of a pipeline cut a section through the field boundary and revealed that the present shallow field bank and ditch was preceded by a substantial, V-profiled ditch. No dating evidence was recovered from the ditch fills. (1, 3-5) A section of the possible dyke described above in (1, 3-5) is visible as an earthwork on aerial photographs of the 1940s. The line of the earthwork appears to continue to the south, preserved in the extant field boundaries. The earthwork consists of a ditch flanked by banks, measuring approximately 190 m in length. (6) The dyke is not visible as an upstanding earthwork on the most recent comprehensive aerial coverage available to the project. (7) This site was digitally plotted as part of the Wild Purbeck Mapping Project. Linear Dyke, on Owermoigne Heath (SY 78138790 - ?78058769). In an area scarred by gravel quarrying a bank and ditch are aligned N-S along W edge of a low plateau sloping gently southwards at about 150ft above OD. The subsoil is Bagshot Beds now with a thick scrub cover. The dyke is 270ft long, with a modern break near the centre; its ditch, on the W side is 14ft across, its bank 18t rising from 6ft to 8ft above the ditch bottom. The S end has been destroyed by quarrying but in a field immediately S of this and ploughed almost flat, are traces of a bank and ditch, the ditch on the W side, extending SSE for about 250ft. (1) Partially visible on air photographs as a ploughed down bank and ditch at SY 78078774. (6) SY 78128789-SY 78138784. A scarp 50.0m long with maximum height 2.3m, and a ditch 0.4m deep on west side. SY 78108778-SY 78058768. A bank approximately 110.0m long part in woodland and part in grass field, 8.0m wide and up to 0.5m high; no visible ditch. The dyke alignment can be further traced in a southwesterly direction as an air photograph soil mark (6) to SY 78018759; thence it continues for 500 metres to SY 77828713 as a strong hedge-bank, on average 3.5m wide and 1.5m high, (depicted as double-line detail on OS 25" 1960); it terminates at a small canalised river in low marshy ground. The earthwork appears to be a probable boundary - demarcation feature of uncertain period. Surveyed at 1:2500 on MSD. (2)

Record last edited

Jul 4 2024 10:34AM