Smedmore Hill Settlement
The Smedmore Hill Settlement is an archaeological site about  south-west of Corfe Castle, in Dorset, England. The site is a settlement and an associated field system, dating from the Iron Age and Romano-British period. It is a scheduled monument, described in the list entry as  "a rare and well preserved example of its class". Description
The site is regarded as a settlement occupied by a group of subsistence farmers during the Romano-British period. It is on the northern slope of Smedmore Hill, a limestone ridge; its total area is about , reduced slightly by ploughing at the north-east edge. It consists of a block of small enclosures of size , separated by rubble-built banks of height up to , each one levelled using limestone rubble, so that the enclosures are terraced into the hillside. Around the edge of the settlement are traces of a bank, up to  high, on the south, south-west and south-east; four gaps in the bank are thought to be entrances. There are inward-turning banks, perhaps to direct livestock into the settlement, by the western entrance where there is a gap  wide. There is an enclosure which is perhaps a paddock, about  east of the settlement; its size is about . To the north and north-east of this are lynchets with widths , probably used for cultivation. There was investigation in 1956 on the east side of the settlement, during construction of a water pipe trench. Finds included pottery of the Iron Age and Romano-British period, including Samian ware. References

Iron Age sites in England
Scheduled monuments in Dorset
Archaeological sites in Dorset