Monument record MDO5892 - The Moot, Cowgrove

A ditched and banked sub-rectangular enclosure with an off-centre mound within it is visible on 1940s aerial photographs and current Lidar imagery. The feature is visible in 1946 as a 64m by 54m enclosure within a 3.5m wide ditch and surrounded by an enclosing bank between 3m and 6m wide. Only three sides of the enclosure are visible, the northwest and southest ends of the enclosing bank and ditch abutting, or being truncated by, a historic field boundary of possible medieval origin. An elliptical mound 30.4m by 20m is visible on current Ldiar imagery within the enclosure and against its southwest side, where it may also abut, or be truncated by, the same historic field boundary. The feature was digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

ST 99000020. An undated enclosure at Cowgrove, immediately east of the Roman Road from Hamworthy to Badbury Rings, lies on a southwest slope, 100 feet above O.D. on heavy clay of the Reading Beds. The area is roughly rectangular measuring 210 feet from northwest to southeast and 180 ft. from northeast to southwest; it is levelled into the slope and bounded on the northwest and southeast by broad banks 3ft high. On the northeast it is bounded by a scarp 3ft high falling towards the interior, and on the south west by a modern field-bank and ditch. A large flat-topped mound nearly 100ft across and 5ft. high occupies a central position in the southwest half of the area. <1> A ditched and banked sub-rectangular enclosure with an off-centre mound within it is visible on 1940s aerial photographs and current Lidar imagery <4-5>. The feature is visible in 1946 as a 64m by 54m enclosure within a 3.5m wide ditch and surrounded by an enclosing bank between 3m and 6m wide (4). Only three sides of the enclosure are visible, the northwest and southeast ends of the enclosing bank and ditch abutting, or being truncated by, a historic field boundary of possible medieval origin (6). An elliptical mound 30.4m by 20m is visible on current Lidar imagery within the enclosure and against its southwest side, where it may also abut, or be truncated by, the same historic field boundary <5>. The feature may be the site of a medieval moated manor. Its name suggests it may have been the site of a medieval manorial moot. The feature was digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

Record last edited

Feb 6 2023 10:45AM