Difference between revisions of "Combs Ditch"

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The course of Combs Ditch, Dorset

Combs Ditch, is sometimes spelt Comb's Ditch, is a linear earthwork in Dorset on Charlton Down. It was once at least four miles long but now only two and a half miles are now visible.

The earthwork consists of a bank with a ditch on the north east side. Combs Ditch forms the boundary between several parishes in Dorset. The parishes of Charlton Marshall and Spetisbury lie to the north-east of Combs Ditch while Winterborne Whitechurch, Winterborne Kingston and Anderson are to the south west.

Combs Ditch is to the north of the Roman road that ran from Badbury Ring to Dorchester but there is no evidence that it intersected the road. The bank ranges from 18 feet to 28 feet wide with a maximum height of 7 feet. The ditch varies in width from 16 feet to 28 feet.[1] Excavation found third or fourth century Roman pottery lying on the turf line behind the bank probably before its final reconstruction[2].

The limited excavation seems to show an Iron Age boundary ditch being enlarged into a defensive earthwork in the late Roman or post-Roman period. This is similar to the nearby linear earthwork of Bokerley Dyke.

References

  1. National Monuments Record: No. 205716 – Combs Ditch
  2. Fowler, Peter (1964). "Interim Report on an Excavation in Combs Ditch Dorset, 1964". Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society 86: 112.