The eastern of two rectangular enclosures on Great Litchfield Down, SSW of Ladle Hill
List Entry Summary
This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
Name: The eastern of two rectangular enclosures on Great Litchfield Down, SSW of Ladle Hill
List entry Number: 1012040
Location
The monument may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
County: Hampshire
District: Basingstoke and Deane
District Type: District Authority
Parish: Litchfield and Woodcott
National Park: Not applicable to this List entry.
Grade: Not applicable to this List entry.
Date first scheduled: 15-Mar-1949
Date of most recent amendment: 27-Sep-1995
Legacy System Information
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
Legacy System: RSM
UID: 25621
Asset Groupings
This list entry does not comprise part of an Asset Grouping. Asset Groupings are not part of the official record but are added later for information.
List entry Description
Summary of Monument
Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.
Reasons for Designation
Small enclosed settlements dating from the Middle Bronze Age are often
associated with earlier field systems and are known on some sites to have
replaced earlier unenclosed settlements. Enclosures of both sub-rectangular
and curvilinear plan are known; the sites are wholly or partly surrounded by a
ditch, bank or palisade, or by a combination or succession of all three. Where
excavated, sites have usually been found to contain a small group of domestic
buildings sufficient for a single or extended family group, although a few
larger enclosures are known. Evidence of a succession of buildings has been
found on some sites. The buildings are usually circular in plan but occasional
rectangular structures are known. Both types of building would have provided a
combination of living accommodation and storage or working areas. Storage pits
have been recorded inside buildings on some sites but are generally rarely
present. In addition to pottery and worked flint, large quantities of burnt
stone and metal working debris have been found in some enclosures.
Although the precise figure is not known, many small enclosed settlements are
located on the chalk downland of southern England. As a class they are
integral to understanding Bronze Age settlement and land use strategies, while
their often close proximity to the numerous burial monuments in the area will
provide insights into the relationship between secular and ceremonial activity
during the Middle Bronze Age.
A small number of small enclosed settlements survive on downland as visible
earthworks; the majority, however, occur in areas of more intensive
cultivation and survive in buried form, visible only from the air as soil
marks and crop marks. All examples with visible earthworks, and those in
buried form which retain significant surviving remains, are considered to be
of national importance.
Much of the archaeological landscape of Ladle Hill and the surrounding downs
is preserved as earthworks or soil- or crop-marks, which together will provide
a detailed understanding of the nature and development of agriculture, land
use and settlement on the north Hampshire downs. The eastern enclosure on
Great Litchfield Down is part of the wider distribution of monuments of Bronze
Age and later date on the downs and will contain archaeological and
environmental information relating to the construction and use of the
monument.
History
Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.
Details
The monument includes the eastern of two rectangular enclosures of possible
Bronze Age date on Great Litchfield Down. The enclosure lies on the crest of a
ridge running south west from Ladle Hill, c.100m away from the western
enclosure.
The enclosure has dimensions of c.36m (south west to north east) by c.33m. The
banks of the enclosure are not clearly defined, surviving as low mounds
between 1.5m and 2m wide and up to 0.3m high. A band of darker soil
representing an infilled ditch surrounds the enclosure, increasing its overall
dimensions to c.42m by c.36m. There is an entrance c.5m wide in the south
eastern side.
MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features,
considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.
Selected Sources
Other
Ordnance Survey , SU 45NE 23, (1956)
National Grid Reference: SU 47697 56362
Map
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This copy shows the entry on 23-Apr-2018 at 10:48:33.
End of official listing