The material provided on this website is intended for general public use only and will be updated periodically. Those undertaking planning, management or research must continue to contact the Historic Environment Record directly for up to date information, events records and accurate locations.

Please note that the inclusion of a heritage asset on this website does not mean it is accessible to the public.

If you have any comments or new information about this record, please email us.

Designations

• SHINE: Tottingworth: med enclosure

Summary

Medieval enclosure previously considered to be an Iron Age camp

Monument Types

• ENCLOSURE (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• SITE (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)

Description

[TQ 614 224] Site of Camp [O.E.](1)
At Tottingworth is the site of a very early (probably pre-Roman) encampment. It is a univallate earthwork with outer ditch, oval in shape, 140' x 102'. Very little now remains as it was deliberately destroyed some years ago, but not before detailed measurements had been taken.(2-3)
The siting was supplied to the OS (on request in 1908) by Charles Dawson in a letter accompanied by a very bad sketch (both in ONB). All that can really be got from these is that a 'Camp' of the dimensions given in 2 and 3 was at somewhere about the published position, that the drive cut through it, that it was 'shown' (presumably undescribed) on OS 25", and that a large tree stood on its SW side. The ONB does not explain how the OS was able to publish the site, let alone its outline, from the information given, and no pre-1908 25" or 6" shows either 'Camp' or any shape approximating to the post-1908 outline. Therefore while the siting is probably about right, the outline is more than suspect, particularly as it accords neither with the dimensions nor the orientation given by Dawson.(4)
This site occupies a position half-way down the slope of a fairly steep clay spur. It is cut through by a drive, and an ancient beech tree stands on a mound beside it, so it is almost certainly the spot intended by Dawson. The mound shows that the whole of the area of the 'camp' has been lowered by about 1.0m. The slopes shown on the OS 25" as part of the 'camp' are in fact part natural, part spill, resulting from this. The area above the site is now the playing field of Tottingworth Park School but a depression at the NE fringe is said by the gardeners to be the result of digging soil for the greenhouses when the house was a private residence. The earthwork could hardly have been a defensive one and it is impossible to say what it represented. Published 1:2500 revised.(5)
xcavation in 1992 has dated the earthwork to the Medieval period, probably 13th to 14th century. No evidence as to its function was discovered however. (6)

Sources

Associated Events

• Field observation on TQ 62 SW 1
• TOTTINGWORTH: Evaluation

Associated Monuments - none recorded

Associated Finds - none recorded

Search results generated by the HBSMR Gateway from exeGesIS SDM Ltd.