Monument record MDO44035 - Uncertain chalk pit, Badbury Rings, Shapwick

The site of an undated chalk pit is visible as a low earthwork hollow on lidar imagery immediately to the north of Badbury Rings, Shapwick. It lies to either side of the Roman road from Old Sarum to Dorchester and was digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour Catchment AI&M Project.

HOLLOW (ROAD.OR.CHALK PIT.) OLDER than Roman Road which bridges it. [6' ST 96350325]. <1> 'The wide cutting at G [ST9636 0325] is later than the Roman Road, for it has broken through the sidebanks (what appears on the photograph to be a continuation of the SE side bank across the cutting is only a modern track). Never the less this cutting is of considerable antiquity, for the tracks near HJK deliberately converge at a point (just off the plate) where the cutting ends, and one at least of these tracks is earlier than the mound J [Dorset 25 SW 12]. This mound is peculiar in character, and though it has been much dug over, it is, I fancy, of the same age and character of the mounds LMN [Dorset 25 SW2], which are Roman. It may be suggested that the cutting G 'may' be of Romano-British or slightly earlier age. If begun from the lower or NW end, as it must have been, and before the Roman road was made, all the facts would be satisfactorily accounted for. <2> A large and deep hollow which extends on either side of the alignment of the Ro. Road. It is approximately 36m. wide at the N.W end, and 10.0 m wide at the S.E. end where it cuts into the ditch of the hillfort. The depth varies from about 5.0m at the N.W. to 0.6 m at the S.E., and the earthwork is entirely grass covered. From visual observation the hollow resembles a chalk pit. The rather obtuse argument in T.3. has been resolved in T.1., where the pit is assumed to be earlier than the road. If mound 'J' is Roman and because one track definitely pre-dates it, and swings to avoid the chalk pit, it can be argued that the road therefore bridged the hollow, certainly in later Ro. times. The Ro. Road is mutilated in this section, and a modern track is on the general line of the road. Visual inspection affords no real decision upon the age of this chalk pit except its pre-Roman probability. <3> Surveyed, in conjunction with R. Road AO.166. [Dorset 41 NE/12], by WIMBORNE. RG. - with assistance. [ST 96380325]. <4> The site of an undated chalk pit is visible as a low earthwork hollow on lidar imagery <5> immediately to the north of Badbury Rings, Shapwick. It lies to either side of the Roman road from Old Sarum to Dorchester and was digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour Catchment AI&M Project. The NRHE suggests that that it post dates the hill fort of Badbury Rings, cutting into the outer rampart, but pre dates the road.

Record last edited

Oct 10 2023 1:07PM