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Two cross dykes on Fontmell Down is a pair of defensive earthworks located on high ground in Dorset, southeast of Gourd's Farm. These linear monuments consist of banks and ditches constructed across the ridge to impede movement along the downland, characteristic of Iron Age defensive structures dating to approximately the first millennium before the common era. The dykes represent evidence of territorial demarcation or military control during the later prehistoric period, when such ridge-top barriers were constructed across southern English chalk uplands. The monuments survive as visible earthwork features and remain significant for understanding Iron Age settlement patterns and landscape management in the region.
Two cross dykes on Fontmell Down, 850m and 880m south east of Gourd's Farm is a scheduled monument protected by Historic England under reference 1020361. View the official record →
Two cross dykes on Fontmell Down is a pair of defensive earthworks located on high ground in Dorset, southeast of Gourd's Farm. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Historic England (NHLE) under reference 1020361.
Two cross dykes on Fontmell Down, 850m and 880m south east of Gourd's Farm 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 1020361.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Hod Hill camp and Lydsbury Rings (8 km), Two Late Iron Age or Romano-British enclosed settlements with part of an associated field system 420m NNW of South Farm (8.1 km), Lazerton Farm causewayed road (8.1 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 15 strands of Two cross dykes on Fontmell Down, 850m and 880m south east of Gourd's Farm'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.
Two cross dykes on Fontmell Down, 850m and 880m south east of Gourd's Farm stands on White Chalk Subgroup, bedrock that formed in the Maastrichtian. The rock here is chalk.