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Summary

Substantial rectilinear enclosure with internal bank, presumably for livestock, in prominent position

Monument Types

• RECTILINEAR ENCLOSURE (Late Iron Age to Early Roman - 100 BC to 200 AD)

Associated Events

• Geophysical survey of sites 1B & 1C, land at Baldock (phase II), 2008
• Evaluation of land at Wallington Road, Baldock (land at Baldock site 1b), 2008

Protected Status

• SHINE: Cropmarks of Enclosure, Field System, and Pit Alignment, probably Bronze Age and Iron Age, Clothall

Full description

Cropmark of a sub-rectangular enclosure. Dimensions approx. 90m x 100m. Two opposed entrances facing north-east and SW. Several internal pits. Linear ditches [2479] cut through the northern ditch circuit, as does a pit alignment [2321]. Two ring ditches are in the immediate vicinity [2403, 2518]. Further NW is a group of rectilinear enclosures [4905], a sub-rectangular enclosure [6173] and linear ditches [2390].
Evaluation in 2008 found it to be a late Iron Age to early Roman livestock enclosure <3>. It had a large V-section ditch about 3m wide; the asymmetric fills implied an internal bank at the SW end, possibly represented by the chalky rubble fill. It contained several sherds of late Iron Age/early Roman pottery and animal bone.
See also [7743], nearby. The position of these two enclosures 'suggests that the surrounding lower land may have been pasture, with the higher NW-SE ridge used to protect the stock…. Furthermore, and particularly in the case of the larger enclosure, its position on a ridge, and the evidence for a large bank suggest that it would have been a highly visible landscape feature' <3>.

CUCAP, Cropmark of enclosure, ditches and pit alignment, Clothall Common, PNO 3146 (Aerial Photograph). SHT14520.

CUCAP, Cropmarks of enclosure and pit alignment, Clothall Common, PNO 3192 (Aerial Photograph). SHT14369.

CUCAP, Cropmarks of enclosure, pit alignment, linear ditches and ring ditches, Clothall, PNO 3023 (Aerial Photograph). SHT14245.

CUCAP, Cropmarks of enclosure, ring ditches and other features, Clothall Common, PNO 3025 (Aerial Photograph). SHT14247.

Letchworth Museum Catalogue (Unpublished document). SHT6537.

OS Records (Index). SHT8223.

A G Rook (Welwyn Arch Soc), 1971, Cropmarks of enclosure and ditches, Clothall Common, PNO 3919 (Aerial Photograph). SHT15191.

<1> Abrams, Joe, 2009, Land at Baldock: archaeological assessment, RNO 2745 (Report). SHT1612.

<2> Harrison, Sam, & Webb, Alistair, 2008, Land at Baldock, Herts: geophysical survey phase II, RNO 2693 (Report). SHT1332.

<3> Newboult, James, 2008, Site 1b, land at Wallington Road, Baldock, Herts: archaeological field evaluation, RNO 2746 (Report). SHT1618.

Sources and further reading

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