Monument record MDO5020 - Linear earthwork, Buzbury Rings, Tarrant Keyneston

A linear earthwork curving around the south and west sides of Buzbury Rings, is almost certainly contemporary with some phase of the settlement. To the east it ends in a small oval enclosure. It consists of a ditch with banks on either side, but it has been almost entirely destroyed by ploughing. The record for this monument has been enhanced with support from Wessex Water. The linear earthwork is visible on aerial photographs and Environment Agency lidar imagery and was digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM Project.

A linear earthwork, 400 yds long, curves around the S and W sides of Buzbury Rings and is almost certainly contemporary with some phase of the settlement. It has been almost entirely destroyed by ploughing. On the S, where it adjoins a ditch 30 ft wide and 2 ft deep, with widely spread banks up to 75 ft wide and no more than 1 foot high on either side. At the SE end (ST 91930579) the outer bank divided to form an oval enclosure, 70 by 55 ft. At the NW end (ST 91680600), where it diverges furthest from the Rings, the earthwork meets the dyke (ST 90 NW 32), but it is not certainly contemporary with it. <1> The linear earthwork is visible on aerial photographs and Environment Agency lidar imagery [4-7]. The earthwork comprises an inner ditch flanked by a bank either side, and possibly having a second outer ditch along the north side. It runs eastwards from just beyond an offshoot of a northeast-southwest aligned linear earthwork (MDO5021) to the west of Buzbury Rings (but does not appear to be part of this feature), curving southeast and then eastwards again around the southern edge of Buzbury Rings. At its eastern end it appears to split, with one section potentially continuing east past an oval enclosure (MDO28036) and a second section passing round (or possibly across but this is not certain) the southwestern side of the enclosure to continue south eastwards [5]. It is possibly a short section of cross dyke and contemporary with some phase of the settlement, possibly Iron Age onwards? The feature was digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM Project.

Record last edited

Oct 16 2023 11:34AM