Monument record MDO8266 - Late prehistoric field system, The Warren, West Lulworth

An extensive group of well-preserved linear and curvilinear banks and ditches are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs and Lidar imagery, extending almost seamlessly from West Bottom to Newlands Warren. They are considered likely to be the remains of a late prehistoric field system.

(Area centred SY 790811) Field system taken from air photographs (not cited) in 1949 by Atkinson. <1> An Iron Age/Romano British field system visible in the area delineated by authority 2. Strong lynchets are clear on the valley sides at SY 797824 and small field banks and lynchets can be seen at SY 789814 and field banks enclosing long east-west regular rectangles occur at SY 800806. <2> (Area centred SY 796808) 'Celtic' field system at Chaldon Herring Warren, Newlands Waren (W. Lulworth) and Chaldon Down (see plan). Three main combes - Middle, Vicarage and Scratchy Bottoms-have floors sloping gently back from cliff edges to heads which rise steeply towards the E._W coastal ridgeway, beyond which narrow dry valleys run N. from Chaldon Down. 'Celtic' fields are continuous for 500 acres over bottoms, sides and intervening ridges and formerly continued seaward, where land has been lost by erosion. N. of the ridgeway they have mostly been heavily ploughed. Lynchets are mostly 2ft to 4ft high but occasionally reach as much as 12 ft., as in Middle Bottom. There are 63 complete fields around Vicarage and Scratchy Bottoms with mean dimensions of 85 yds. by 45 yds. (just over 3/4 acre). On the ridge N. of (a) eight long fields average 103 yds. by 27 yds. Barrows Chaldon Herring (SY 78 SE 37) are probably at the angles of fields, the N-S banks of which have been flattened. A line of very small fields, including some of 1/6 acre, survives S.E. of the block at 808805. The maximum field slope is 16o. Boundary lines are indicated by continuous runs of lynchets S. to N., one on the high ground between Middle and Vicarage Bottoms and another between Vicarage and Scratchy Bottoms which for 300 yds. is followed by the present parish boundary. There has been some strip cultivation in the E part of Newlands Warren (about 806805), narrow rig ploughing W of the site of Warren House, in Scratchy Bottom and E. of it, and recent cultivation over fields just S. of the ridgeway. 'Flint-filled hollows' are prominent in Middle and Vicarage Bottoms. Settlement sites are nowhere clear but possibly existed at: (a) (793806) on the sheltered E. shoulder of a narrow col between Middle and Vicarage Bottoms where ill-defined platforms and scoops lie over 2 acres on a gentle slope. The area is bounded on the W by a terraceway, on the N. by a faint terrace and on the S. by 'Celtic' fields. (b) (7958061) 200 yds. E of (a), a very shallow 'angle-ditch', with outer bank, 270 ft., partly encloses 'Celtic' fields on a slope of 16o. A platform 18 ft. square lies above the W. end of the ditch on the shoulder of a re-entrant gully. These features are undated, but a comparable angle-ditch over 'Celtic' fields in Nether Cerne, lay in and area of Romano-Bitish settlement. (c) (80108085) at the head of Scratchy Bottom is a quarried-out, roughly flat, trapezoidal floor, with sides between 15 ft. and 76 ft. long. It lies clear of, and 20 ft. below, a 'Celtic' lynchet and is approached by a narrow track from the S.W. (d) (80478050), E of Stratchy Bottom, a pentagonal area of 1/2 acre is outlined by 'Celtic' field fragments. Surface finds from Scratchy Bottom and from N.W. of Vicarage Bottom include Romano-British, Iron Age 'C' and possibly earlier sherds. <4> The Celtic field system centred by SY 796808 remains generally as described by R.C.H.M. (4), in good preservation. Of the settlement sites mentioned (a) has been ploughed out; (b) the 'angle-ditch' and platform remain as described: (c) and (d) remain as described but too fragmentary for survey. <5> An extensive group of well-preserved linear and curvilinear banks and ditches are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs <6-10> and Lidar imagery <11>, extending almost seamlessly from West Bottom to Newlands Warren. They are considered likely to be the remains of an Iron Age field system. These features were digitally plotted during the South West Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey (Dorset) and the Wild Purbeck Mapping Project.

Record last edited

Feb 26 2024 4:39PM