More information : [ST 53013730 - ST 53463822] Ponter's Ball [G.T.] (1)
This is a linear earthwork about 15ft. high and ditched on the east. It is a five-eights mile long, and runs NNE-SSW across the high ground between Hearty Moor (ST 5339) and Kennard Moor (ST 5236), both formerly swamps. It probably formed a continuous defensive barrier with the earthwork 'New Ditch, (of similar construction and orientation), some three miles to the SW [ST 53 SW 20.]
Bulleid put a section across Ponter's Ball in 1909, but found very little except a few potsherds; some fragments, from the old turf line under the bank, were regarded by Sir Hercules Read as Bronze Age: others, deep in the ditch, were thought to be Glastonbury Lake Village type, but as no sherd was decorated this classification is tentative. Pottery in Taunton Museum. (2-4)
This earthwork is similar to New Ditch but of more formidable construction. The gap through which the modern road passes is staggered and appears to be original; to the north of it the ditch is well defined, but to the south has been obscured by a modern hedge and drainage ditch.
Radford suggests Ponter's Ball as part of a great Celtic sanctuary: probably 3rd.c. B.C.
The pottery from here is still in Taunton Museum (ACC.3434). surveyed at 1:2500. (5)
Ponter's Ball is possibly sub-Roman and connected with the DA occupation on Glastonbury Tor (ST 53 NW 4).
Excavation in 1970 appears to date Ponters Ball, at least at the point examined, to the 12th century or later. (6-7)
Additional references. (8-9)
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