Monument record MDO709 - The Trendle, Maypole or Frying Pan, Cerne Abbas

Rectangular earthwork enclosure of unknown date on Giant Hill, consisting of an outer bank with a slight outer ditch on the north and east, and an inner bank with a slight inner ditch, the latter believed to have been a hedge bank.

Earthwork, called the Trendle, forms a roughly rectangular enclosure, it consists of an outer bank with a slight outer ditch on the N and E and an inner bank with a slight inner ditch. The inner bank is of sharper profile and more regular form and is presumably of later date; it is indeed stated to have been a hedge-bank (Antiquity, IV, 113). Within the enclosure is a rise in the ground of quite irregular form. The enclosure is said to have been used for Maypole dancing. <1> Possibly Romano-British, associated with the Cerne Giant (ST 60 SE 39). <2> "The Trendle" or "Frying Pan"; a small banked enclosure measuring 30.5 m by 27.4 m with a raised disturbed centre. It may represent an Iron Age burial mound, the tomb perhaps of the person represented by the 'Giant'. <3> Situated at ST 66730167, terraced into the S end of a N-S spur immediately above and E of the Cerne Abbas Giant, lies a well preserved rectangular earthwork. The area enclosed measures 23.0 m NW-SW by 19.0m NW-SE, and is a level platform cut into the slope. For such a small earthwork the system of banks and ditches is complex. They consists of an outer ditch 0.3 m deep, intact around the N side only, but traceable around the W and E. Inside this is a substantial bank 1.8 m high on the downhill S side, and 1.5 m on the uphill N side broken by a possible entrance in the S corner. A second continuous bank runs parallel to, and inside of, the above, averaging 0.6 m high and 2.0 m wide with traces of a vestigial inner ditch 0.2 m deep. Roughly central to the enclosure and orientated E-W lies a rectangular mound, 15.0 m long by 10.0 m wide, and up to 0.7 m high. Without excavation, it is impossible to conclude the age and purpose of this feature. However, some form of ritualistic origin seems likely. Surveyed at 1:2500 on MSD with 1:1250 enlargement. <4> The earthwork is known locally as "Frying Pan". Enquiries to establish the application of the name 'Trendle' to the feature were negative. Mrs Fox (b) a life long, and now also the oldest inhabitant of Cerne Abbas, stated that she had never heard of the name 'Trendle' being applied specifically to the enclosure, but rather it seems to some vague indeterminable area of Giant Hill (name ST 670021). <5>

Record last edited

Dec 24 2021 10:40AM