Monument record MDO4800 - Enclosure at Parsonage Farm, Stourpaine

A rectangular enclosure lies on the south side of the moated enclosure at Parsonage Farm, Stourpaine. It survives as a low earthwork on the south and east sides. The west side is no longer visible. A circular earthwork, described as a 'cockpit' survives in the northern part of this enclosure. It is visible as earthworks on lidar imagery and was digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM Project. The record for this monument has been enhanced with support from Wessex Water.

The first edition 25-inch Ordnance Survey map shows the bank and ditch along the south side of the enclosure and a scarp forming a return along the west side. The east side appears to have a lane or track running along the line of the ditch. At the northern end is a straight length of bank which adjoins the south east corner of the moat. <1> The remains of a rectangular enclosure adjoining the south side of the moated enclosure at Parsonage Farm, Stourpaine survive as a low spread bank with an external ditch along the south side. The western side is not traceable on the ground but is shown on the first edition of the 25-inch Ordnance Survey map and may have been destroyed when the railway was constructed next to it in 1863. A roughly circular earthwork described by Hutchins (I, 305) as a 'Cockpit' lies in the northern part of this enclosure against the south side of the moat. <2> The rectangular enclosure is visible as earthworks on lidar imagery [3] and was digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM Project.

Record last edited

Nov 22 2022 8:07PM