| Summary : A length of ditch of Middle Bronze Age date discovered and excavated in October 1893 by Pitt Rivers. The ditch runs for a total length of 68.6 metres, and includes a near right-angled turn. Prior to excavation, the site had not been visible as a surface feature. The ditch averaged 2 metres in depth. No trace of an accompanying bank was observed. Area excavations failed to idnetify any post-built structures associated with the ditch. However, this was also the case at nearby South Lodge (ST 91 NE 9), where Pitt-Rivers and his labourers largely failed to notice structures which only came to light during re-excavation in the late 1970s by Barrett and Bradley. It seems likely therefore that the Angle Ditch represents either a partially enclosed settlement, or a partially ditched enclosure (see, for example, the nearby Down Farm enclosure SU 01 SW 84). Like South Lodge, the ditch appears to run around the corner of an earlier field plot (integrated within field system SU 01 NW 71). Pitt Rivers' surface trenching recovered pottery and flint in variable quantities across the area examined, including some notable concentrations. The ditch also contained pottery, metalwork and other finds of Middle Bronze Age date. The upper fill of the ditch included some Roman pottery, and Roman sherds also occurred in a surface scatter in the vicinity. The Angle Ditch itself is also cut by a later ditch which also appears to form part of a larger irregular enclosure surrounding Wor Barrow (SU 01 NW 14) and a couple of round barrows (SU 01 NW 13 and 15). The purpose of this larger enclosure appears to have been to demarcate an unploughed area around Wor Barrow. |
More information : (27) Bronze Age ditch, known as the Angle Ditch and
probably part of an occupation site, lies on the summit of
Handley Down (01171730), some 200 ft. W. of Wor Barrow (29).
Not visible as a surface feature, it was discovered by bosing
and was excavated by General Pitt-Rivers. It lies in an area of
'Celtic' fields (Group (85), p. 118), now heavily ploughed, and
appears to be integrated with their pattern. The ditch, 6 1/2 ft.
deep, 7 1/2ft. wide at the top and 1ft. wide at the bottom,
followed an irregular line for 165 ft. from S.W. to N.E. then
turned at right-angles towards the S.E. and continued for a
further 60 ft. Finds from the lower filling of the ditch indicate
a date in the later Bronze Age; they include parts of a looped
palstave and of a class-II razor, a bronze awl, a sandstone
grain-rubber, a complete barrel urn and fragments of others
and a fragment of a globular urn. Possibly the ditch formed part
of a roughly rectangular enclosure with braod gaps in its side,
like that on Martin Down, Hants, also exavated by Pitt-Rivers and
found to be of comparable date (Excavations IV (1898), 185-214).
That the Angle Ditch had already been obscured by ploughing in
the Roman period is clear from the quantity of later pottery,
especially Romano-British wares, found in its upper filling and
as a surface scatter around it.
Pitt-River's excavation also revealed a shallow ditch, 3 ft.
wide and 1 1/2 ft. deep, which ran for over 450 ft. from N.N.W.
to S.S.E. across the site and was apparently cut by the Angle
Ditch. Its position and its apparent relationship with the 'Celtic'
fields immediately to the W. suggest that it may have served to
separate those fields from an uncultivated area surrounding Wor
Barrow, rather than as a drain, as suggested by Pitt-Rivers.
Finds from the excavation are in the Pitt-Rivers Museum at
Farnham. (Pitt-Rivers, Excavations IV (1898), 58-61, 102-113;
Dorcest Procs., 46(1925), 92-3; Arch. J., CXIX (1962), 54, 56.). (1)
Plan of the enclosure. (2)
The site was visited by MPPA (undated). In view of the apparent incomplete nature of the site, the limited understanding of the monument and the extensive degradation of the site by ploughing, it was not recommended for scheduling. Ground photo with archive report. (6) |