Hampton Down Stone Circle View all content for Hampton Down

(58) Stone Circle (SY 58 NE; 59628650), on Portesham Hill, stands 550 yds. S.E. of Hampton Barn on a level site about 680 ft. above O.D. (Fig. p. 514). Excavations in 1965, by Dr. G. J. Wainwright of the Ministry of Public Building and Works, established that the surviving stones were not bedded and that there had been an earlier circle. This circle, represented by the sockets of stones, lay under and to the W. of the field bank which crosses the site. It was 18 ft. to 20 ft. in internal diameter and was composed of nine stones, set in two arcs to N. and S.; the E. and W. sides were defined by narrow V-sectioned ditches. A hollowed track, running up to the circle on the N., was revetted on its W. side by small flat stones, and three stake-holes were found on the perimeter of the circle immediately to the W. A low bank of clay had been constructed between the track and the stones in the N.W. quarter and the S. edge of the socket on the E. side of the track was also built up with clay and stones. The circle had been disturbed before or by the building of the field bank with its side ditches. Stones have now been placed in the excavated holes. (Information from Dr. G. J. Wainwright; Dorset Procs. XXIX (1908), lxxviii (with photograph of later circle), 250; LXXXVIII (1966), 122–7; Antiquity XIII (1939), 142, fig. 2; O.S. Map of Neolithic Wessex, no. 143; R. D'O. Good, Weyland (1945), 32.)

Posted by Chance 29th March 2016ce

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