Monument record MDO6381 - Prehistoric field system, Wimborne St Giles

Extensive traces of later prehistoric or Roman field systems on Bottlebush Down, initially identified from air photographs. In 1954, the Ordnance Survey noted lynchets surviving in places up to 2 metres high, although subsequently RCHME noted that the earthworks had been largely levelled by ploughing. The fields form part of an extensive network of field systems in the northeast part of Dorset.

(Centred SU 025157) Field system at Bottlebush Down. Extent taken from air photographs, Jan-March 1949. <1> An extensive area of field banks and lynchets of typical Iron Age/Romano-British type, of an average height of 1.0m, occurs around SU 026162, in a fir plantation. At SU 02741573 there are strong lynchets up to 2.0m high, and vague lynchets are also visible at SU 02571541. <2> On Bottlebrush Down (part of a large area of 'Celtic' fields on the chalklands in the north east of the county) the fields are integrated with lengths of bank and ditch, now largely flattened by ploughing which presumably served as boundaries between ban blocks of fields. <3-4>

Record last edited

Dec 14 2022 1:27PM