Monument record MDO41946 - Ditch, Beauvoir Court, Cerne Abbas

A small section of a ditch revealed in 2018 during evaluation of the site for development. The ditch measured 2m wide and 0.7m deep and was aligned ENW-WSW. It contained a single fill of pale-grey-brown humic-depleted clay-silt with chalk lumps and animal bone and one struck flint flake of broad prehistoric date.

An archaeological evaluation was commissioned by the owners of Beauvoir Court, Cerne Abbas, Mr and Mrs Gleeson in relation to the construction of a proposed new car park and access path, as part of more extensive alterations to the building and its stable block. The site of the car park may have been part of the former precinct of Cerne Abbey. Trench 1 at 0.9m depth at the southern end a roughly metalled surface likely to be the floor of an agricultural building or yard surface, was found set on reddish-brown gritty soil which itself sealed an infilled chalk-cut ditch which was possibly of broadly prehistoric date. A small section of the ditch only was examined however it was over 2m wide and 0.7m deep and was aligned ENW-WSW. It contained a single fill of pale-grey-brown humic-depleted clay-silt with chalk lumps and animal bone and one struck flint flake of broad prehistoric date. Animal bones and shells were found in Trench 1 in 5 layers with one closely stratified group in the ditch fill of insufficient quality to enable dating.

Record last edited

Sep 2 2019 3:56PM