Proc Dorset Natur Hist Archaeol Soc 88

SY 596865. The visible "stone circle" proved on excavation to be spurious, but sockets of a genuine earlier circle partly underlay it. A track approached this circle and terminated at its perimeter. There was considerable disturbance of the site, and no finds were made. Stones have now been placed in the original sockets and the site fenced off. The excavation proves the need for care in interpreting circles of stones, particularly where farming has been carried on.

NGR ST 656067. The kiln is dated 1250-1300 and certain archaistic features are described as the possible survival of traditional regional forms. The wares are in a well-fired grey paste, hard, sandy, and often striated. Cooking pots, jugs, bowls, pans and crested ridge-tiles are illustrated as products. Stress is laid on the difficulty of interpreting the structural remains. The possibility of the kiln having two stokepits in its primary phase and one in its second phase is discussed. Fire-bars, forming part of the kiln furniture, may belong to the second phase only. They are rare in a medieval context and a reconstruction shows their use in an elevated floor to the baking chamber. PM

The sixth in a series which is covering forty-nine certain and forty-two possible deer-parks identified by documents and fieldwork. Four parks are treated, with maps and descriptions; the methodology may be helpful elsewhere. None of the four has impressive earthworks, perhaps because after about 1350 the shortage of labour precluded the erection of massive banks, paling fences being used instead for the enclosure of parks. Athelhampton, a medieval embanked park, seems to have been enlarged by the addition of two unembanked closes, bringing the total acreage to 160. At Stockwood, only 500yds of bank could be traced, but a possible perimeter for the park is suggested. Two other parks gave negative results in the field.