Monument record MDO4947 - Iron Age/Romano-British settlement south of Hinton Bushes, Tarrant Hinton

Iron Age/Romano-British settlement consisting of two oval enclosures, linked by a ditch and associated with a series of irregular enclosures defined by banks and ditches. It is also associated with 'Celtic fields', which appear to connect the settlement with the neighbouring enclosure. Much reduced by ploughing.

A pit at ST 92051085 is approximately 20.0m in diameter, with a semicircular bank around the S half and a sunken way entering it from the W. An isolated mound to the NE suggests the bank formerly continued all round the pit. There is no evidence to show whether the pit is part of the settlement or a much later quarry Allcroft classifies it as a 'circus', but it does not conform to the usual type. A mound at ST 91971086, 20.0m in diameter and 0.7m high, is unlikely to be a barrow, but is perhaps upcast from undated diggings to the NW, where surface workings have created a scarp 1.3m high. <1> In 1968 a Romano-British bronze terminal was found after ploughing within the southern enclosure. It is unusual to find such a sophisticated item at a native site and it may have come from the Roman buildings at Barton Field (ST 91 SW 35). Surface finds in 1969 included samian and New Forest wares, roofing tiles and a bronze brooch. <4-5> IRON AGE AND ROMANO-BRITISH SETTLEMENT (920110), S. of Hinton Bushes, now almost entirely levelled by ploughing, lies between 300 ft. and 380 ft. above sea-level on the gentle S. and E. slopes of a Chalk ridge. It comprises two oval enclosures (Plate 79), linked by a ditch and associated with a series of irregular angular enclosures defined by banks and ditches; it also is associated with 'Celtic' fields immediately on the W., which appear to connect the settlement with the neighbouring enclosure. (ST 91 SW 16). The northern oval, a fragment of which survives in Hinton Bushes, is 600 ft. by 450 ft. in diameter and some 5 acres in area. Formerly it was defined on the S. and E. by a low bank between ditches, and on the N. and W. by a ditch between banks. Slight hollows have been observed in the interior, but no certain entrance is identifiable. A ditch runs southwards from the oval and then curves to link it with the E. side of the southern oval, some 200 yds. Away. The latter, 850 ft. by 500 ft. in diameter, is 8 acres in area and appears to have been centred on the E. It was formerly defined by a bank between ditches on the S. and E. and by a bank with an external ditch on the N. and W. Numerous hollows and irregularities inside the oval indicated occupation. The site is almost certainly of more than one structural phase; finds, chiefly from the southern oval, indicate a lengthy period of occupation. The finds include Iron Age 'A' and 'C' pottery, samian ware, flanged bowls and New Forest ware, parts of two stone mortars, part of a rotary quern, a roof tile, iron nails, and a point, perhaps from a goad. A boundary dyke, now levelled by ploughing, extends S.W. from the southern oval for some 800 yds., curving around the southern end of Pimperne Long Barrow and extending into Pimperne parish. It consists of a ditch, formerly flanked on each side by low banks. <6> Additional reference including new local plan of this and adjacent monuments. <7-8>

Record last edited

Feb 16 2023 1:07PM