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Summary

Shearman's Wath Henge, 330m north of Thimbleby Mill, West Ashby.

Full description

Cropmarks of a single ring ditch with a concentric ring of post holes or pits outside the ditch and with opposed entrances. {1}{2}

A class II henge lying about 150m east of the river Bain on the edge of the flood plain on glacial sands and gravels. The oval cropmark encloses an area about 25m in diameter and has a distinct, broad, entrance facing north-west. A smaller, less distinct entrance lies opposite; the cropmark is obscured here because a plough furrow crosses at a critical point. Further less prominent breaks in the ditch near the south-east entrance suggest a segmented ditch construction. The aerial photographs show no sign of a bank but the ditch is encircled by a series of pits, at least twenty-four in number; some of these are obscured by glacial markings, but they appear to be evenly spaced and do not respect the entrances. The pits may have accommodated wooden posts or, perhaps, upright stones but there are no visible remains on the ground as the monument is ploughed out. Fieldwalking in 1981 produced forty-one worked pieces of local glacial flint from the vicinity of the henge, identified by Peter Chowne as comprising thirty-two flakes, four cores, two horse-shoe scrapers, one side-ended scraper and two notched flakes. The collection would not be out of place within a late Neolithic or early Bronze Age context. {3}{4}

A retouched blade, side scraper or projectile point, probably Bronze Age was found in February 1990 during a site visit. {5}

<1> HBMC, AM 7, SAM 265 (Scheduling Record). SLI4067.

<2> ST JOSEPH, J.K.S., 1945-79, CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY COLLECTION, BCG 82-84, 1970 (Aerial Photograph). SLI111.

<3> A.J. White (ed.), 1982, 'Archaeology in Lincolnshire, 1981' in Lincolnshire History and Archaeology, vol.17, pp.76-7 (Article in Serial). SLI769.

<4> ENGLISH HERITAGE, 1998, REVISED SCHEDULING DOCUMENT 29722, MPP 23 (Scheduling Record). SLI4319.

<5> S.J. Catney, 1994, Information from Steve Catney, - (Verbal Communication). SLI4895.

Monument Types

• RING DITCH (Undated)
• HENGE (Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age - 2350 BC to 1501 BC)

Associated Finds

• FLAKE (Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age - 2350 BC to 1501 BC)

Associated Events

• Field Walking at Shearman's Wath Henge, West Ashby

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument

Sources and further reading

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