Cross dyke on Knowle Hill, 470m SSE of East Creech Farm

Reasons for Designation

Cross dykes are substantial linear earthworks typically between 0.2km and 1km long and comprising one or more ditches arranged beside and parallel to one or more banks. They generally occur in upland situations, running across ridges and spurs. They are recognised as earthworks or as cropmarks on aerial photographs, or as combinations of both. The evidence of excavation and analogy with associated monuments demonstrates that their construction spans the millennium from the Middle Bronze Age, although they may have been re-used later. Current information favours the view that they were used as territorial boundary markers, probably demarcating land allotment within communities, although they may also have been used as trackways, cattle droveways or defensive earthworks. Cross dykes are one of the few monument types which illustrate how land was divided up in the prehistoric period. They are of considerable importance for any analysis of settlement and land use in the Bronze Age. Very few have survived to the present day and hence all well- preserved examples are considered to be of national importance.

The cross dyke on Knowle Hill 470m SSE of East Creech Farm survives well and will contain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to the monument and the landscape in which it was constructed. The cross dyke forms part of a group of similar monuments which enclose the Iron Age settlement situated on the upper part of Knowle Hill.

Details

The monument includes a cross dyke, orientated north-south, 430m SSE of East Creech Farm on the lower west facing slope of Knowle Hill, a chalk ridge of the Isle of Purbeck, overlooking Poole Harbour to the north east and the Corfe valley to the south. The cross dyke forms part of a group associated with an Iron Age hilltop enclosure on Knowle Hill. The cross dyke includes a bank composed of earth, flint and chalk with maximum dimensions of 30.5m in length, 4.6m wide and c.0.6m in height. This is bordered to the west by a ditch from which material was quarried during the construction of the monument. The ditch survives as an earthwork 3m wide and c.0.3m deep.

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.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

28329

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset: Volume I, (1970), 517
Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset: Volume I, (1970), 517
Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset: Volume I, (1970), 517

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.