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John of Gaunt's Deer Park Pale is a fragmentary linear earthwork located in Hampshire, representing the remains of a medieval deer park boundary. Dating to the later fourteenth century, the pale consists of a ditch and bank that formerly enclosed a hunting preserve associated with John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, one of the most powerful magnates of the Plantagenet era. The surviving sections of the earthwork demonstrate the scale of aristocratic land management during the medieval period, when deer parks served both as practical sources of venison and as symbols of elite status and territorial control. The monument's preservation, though partial, provides archaeological evidence of the landscape modifications undertaken by the highest ranks of the medieval nobility.
John of Gaunt's Deer Park Pale is a scheduled monument protected by Historic England under reference 1003787. View the official record →
John of Gaunt's Deer Park Pale is a fragmentary linear earthwork located in Hampshire, representing the remains of a medieval deer park boundary. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Historic England (NHLE) under reference 1003787.
John of Gaunt's Deer Park Pale is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, legally protected by Historic England (NHLE) — the body responsible for designating and safeguarding heritage sites in England. The official designation reference is 1003787.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Bowl barrow in Parnholt Wood (4.1 km), Ashley Wood camp (4.5 km), Bowl barrow on Ashley Down Plantation, 1010m south west of Forest of Bere Farm (4.9 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 15 strands of John of Gaunt's Deer Park Pale's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
John of Gaunt's Deer Park Pale stands on White Chalk Subgroup, bedrock that formed in the Maastrichtian. The rock here is chalk.