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The Excavation of a Durotrigian Farmstead near Tollard Royal in Cranbourne Chase, Southern England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2014

G. J. Wainwright ,
R. J. Harrison ,
A. M. Evans ,
A. Bowman  and
P. F. Bird
G. J. Wainwright
Affiliation:
Inspectorate of Ancient Monuments, Ministry of Public Building and Works
R. J. Harrison
Affiliation:
London Hospital, Medical College
A. M. Evans
Affiliation:
Dept. Agricultural Botany, Reading University
A. Bowman
Affiliation:
Dept. Agricultural Botany, Reading University
P. F. Bird
Affiliation:
Curator of Natural History, The City Museum, Bristol
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Extract

The site whose excavation is here recorded is a small kite-shaped enclosure all but obliterated by ploughing. It is situated (ST (179) 942197; 6-inch sheet ST 91 NW) at the southern tip of a spur known as Berwick Down 1 mile north of the village of Tollard Royal on the borders of Wiltshire and Dorset. It is surrounded on its south or downhill side by a semi-circular bank and ditch. The locality has been recently described briefly by H. C. Bowen and P. Fowler whose plan (1966, 46–8, fig. 2) is here reproduced (fig. 2). The other two sites occupying the 16 acres of the spur comprise:

(1) An Iron Age settlement to the north consisting of a concentration of unenclosed pits, a large round house demarcated by a pennanular palisade groove and two cross-dykes.

(2) A circular enclosure 2½ acres in extent containing Romano-British hut platforms and crossed in its southern sector by a modern fence. To the north of this fence the earthworks have never been ploughed and are in a state of preservation, only too rarely found in southern England. To the south of the fence the downland has been heavily ploughed over a number of years.

The earthworks of the kite-shaped enclosure had become so degraded that in 1962 the Ministry of Public Building and Works initiated a trial excavation under the direction of Mr E. Greenfield. With the assistance of Miss V. Russell, Mr Greenfield covered the area with a 10 foot grid of test-holes which were expanded into trenches when required. In 1965 the site was put down to grass and the earthworks planned in the spring by members of the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, by which time the bank and ditch of the kite-shaped enclosure were virtually invisible. In August and September of that year the interior of the enclosure was completely stripped by the author on behalf of the Ministry of Public Building and Works.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 34 , February 1969 , pp. 102 - 147
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1969

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