Monument record MDO80 - Enclosures in Tenant's Bottom, Alton Pancras

Two rectangular enclosures in area close to each other, possibily sheep or cattle pens. Undated, possibly medieval or any date to late Bronze Age onwards.

Rectangular Enclosures, two, lie close together in Tenant's Bottom, spanning the floor of a dry valley in the Chalk (see plan). Both are undated but are perhaps mediaeval, as they appear to be later than the surrounding 'Celtic' fields (Group 38). The more westerly of the two enclosures (69210155) covers about 1/5 acre and is bounded by a bank 2 ft high, with an outer ditch, 1 1/2 ft deep. There is an entrance 8 ft wide at the centre of the SE side. The interior is featureless except for a slightly irregular hollow, 1 1/2 ft deep, near the entrance. The other enclosure (69340152), 70 yds E of the first, is approximately 1/4 acre in area and is bounded by a bank and outer ditch as before, and has a comparable entrance on the E. On the inside, immediately N of the entrance, a length of bank runs N at first and then curves W; this is more likely to be the remains of a structure than an inner bank of the enclosure, as has been suggested (Dorset Procs XXXIII (1912), 42). On the N side between this bank and the enclosure bank is a broad terrace 1 ft high. <2> Probably Medieval pasteral enclosures, as described by the RCHM <2>. The western enclosure measures, internally, 33.0m NW-SE by 29.0m transversely, the eastern enclosure, 38.0m E-W by from 28.0m to 36.0m transversely. The banks are 4.0m wide, 0.3m high, the outer ditches, 3.0m wide and less than 0.3m deep. The sites are in rough pasture and are poorly preserved. Published 1:2500 survey revised. <4>

Record last edited

Dec 23 2021 10:13AM