Linear boundary earthwork on Amesbury Down west of Stock Bottom

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1015218
Date first listed:: 03-May-1955

The Missing Pieces Project

Share your view of unique places.

Add your contribution

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.

What is the National Heritage List for England?

The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

The list includes:

🏠 Buildings
🏰 Scheduled monuments
🌳 Parks and gardens
⚔️ Battlefields
⚓ Shipwrecks

Find out more about listing

Historic England Archive

Search over 1 million photographs and drawings from the 1850s to the present day using our images archive.

Find Photos

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1015218
Date first listed:: 03-May-1955
Date of most recent amendment:: 03-Jan-1997

Location

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: Wiltshire (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Amesbury
National Grid Reference:: SU 15549 39504

Reasons for Designation

Linear boundaries are substantial earthwork features comprising single or multiple ditches and banks which may extend over distances varying between less than 1km to over 10km. They survive as earthworks or as linear features visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs or as a combination of both. The evidence of excavation and study of associated monuments demonstrate that their construction spans the millennium from the Middle Bronze Age, although they may have been re-used later. The scale of many linear boundaries has been taken to indicate that they were constructed by large social groups and were used to mark important boundaries in the landscape; their impressive scale displaying the corporate prestige of their builders. They would have been powerful symbols, often with religious associations, used to define and order the territorial holdings of those groups who constructed them. Linear earthworks are of considerable importance for the analysis of settlement and land use in the Bronze Age; all well preserved examples will normally merit statutory protection.

The linear boundary earthwork survives well in places and will provide valuable information relating to the monument and the landscape in which it was constructed.

Details

The monument includes a section of linear boundary earthwork aligned broadly north - south on a gentle south west facing slope of Amesbury Down, west of Stock Bottom. The earthwork is the southernmost surviving section of a more extensive linear boundary, traces of which are visible on aerial photographs immediately to the north. The overall form of the linear boundary varies within the monument. Its most northerly section survives for a length of 120m as a ditch 3.5m wide and 0.5m deep on either side of which a bank has previously been recorded. The overall width of the boundary at this point was recorded as 12m. For a further 90m south of this section the ditch of the boundary survives as a soilmark 4m wide and traces of a bank are visible as a soilmark 4m wide on its eastern side. The boundary here changes direction to run north west - south east. Part excavation at this point in 1966 revealed three phases of construction and a possible gate structure. From this point for a distance of 170m the boundary survives as a ditch 6m wide and 0.5m deep flanked on its north east side by a bank 6m wide and 0.9m high. There are no indications within this section of a bank on the other side of the ditch. At the southern end of this section the bank has been levelled by the Stock Bottom road, beneath which the ditch will survive as a buried feature. To the south of the road the final 90m length of the boundary was previously recorded as a ditch flanked on either side by a bank and with an overall width of 10m. The banks have been levelled and the ditch infilled by cultivation but the ditch will survive as a buried feature. The linear boundary earthwork lies within an extensive ancient field system. This has largely been levelled by cultivation and is not included within the scheduling. The modern road surface and all fence posts are excluded from the scheduling although the ground beneath these features is included.

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:: 28935
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
'Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine' in Excavation and Fieldwork in Wiltshire (add) 1966, , Vol. 63, (1968), 115

Legal

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.