Monument record MDO6117 - Prehistoric field system, Sixpenny Handley

Extensive prehistoric field system covering much of the top and flanks of the low ridge between the Gussage Brook and the headwaters of the River Allen.

'Group (82): Thorney Down – Gussage Down – Harley Down – Tenantry Down – Brockington Down (Gussage All Saints, Gussage St. Michael, Sixpenny Handley). ‘Celtic’ fields cover much of the top and flanks of the low ridge between the Gussage Brook and the headwaters of the R. Allen. From just S. of Sixpenny Handley they extend almost without interruption for over 3 miles to Brockington Down (000165-995118-014116). Much of the area was formerly downland pasture, but it is now extensively cultivated and most of the field remains have been levelled. On Gussage Hill the ‘Celtic’ fields, many of them irregular in shape, are clearly integrated with an Iron Age and Romano-British settlement (Gussage St. Michael (7), plan opp. P. 24) and immediately N.E. of it they make use of the earlier earthworks of the Dorset Cursus. Fields are also integrated with another enclosure (Gussage St. Michael (8), see Plate 54), probably of the Iron Age, and apparently with a linear dyke (Gussage All Saints (21)). They appear not to have intruded on the concentration of barrows on Wyke Down. Air photographs: F21/58RAF/1090; 0115-20, 0140-47; F22/58RAF/1090: 0141; CPE/UK1845: 6048-9; 68/3250: 0057-8; CPE/UK 2038: 3197-8; N.M.R., ST 9914/7, 14.' {1}

Record last edited

May 29 2019 10:40AM