More information : SY58448850) Old Warren (Earthwork) (NAT) (1)
Old Warren earthwork on the N end of a spur (583 feet OD) consists of a scarp 8-10 feet high with a broad outer berm, bounding the half oval end of the spur; the scarp turns in slightly where a trackway crosses it and this trackway is continued along the spur to the S. For part of its length it is sunk and there are traces of a bank on part of its NE side. About 220 yards S of the N scarp are slight traces of another to the w of the trackway curving around as though to join the main scarp on the W The name Brydian, occurrng in a list of burghal hides dating probably from early in the C10th, has been identified with Bredy, and this earthwork may be the remains of one of Alfred's burhs, perhaps never completed. (2)
This site is as described in Authy.2 except that the central rackway consists of two rather mutilated banks approximately 10.0m apart and each averaging 0.2m high, with the track between them. At the N end a small platform occurs without the scarp. The scarp averages 3.0m high and 4.0m wide and is very flinty. Whether this is some form of revetting could not be determined. The whole area is grass covered. The position of the earthwork is a good defensive one, although it is not now in a defensive state, and is apparently unfinished. It is unlike Iron Age hillforts being a single scarp with no defence on the neck of the spur. (3)
Danes Camp or Old Warren is a `battered and mutilated hill fort covered by traces of plough ridges dating from the C13th and C18th'. It is almost certain `that it was the site of Alfred's burh set up between Wareham and Exeter'. (4)
Aerial photography and archaeological field work suggest that Old Warren was an Iron Age univallate hillfort. On the basis of the name `Brydian' used in a grant from Littlebredy to Cerne Abbey of 987, some authorities sugest that Old Warren was adapted as a burh in the C9th-10th, and is the Brydian mentioned between Exeter and Wareham in the Burghal Hidage. However, recent fieldwork in conjunction with documentary research suggests that Bridport was the site of the burh. (5)
Scheduled. (6) |