150 WORGRET HILL AND WAREMAM WATER 



Hutchins (3rd Edition, Vol. L, p. 108) observes "There are 

 several barrows in the neighbourhood of Worgret. One of large 

 size was destroyed some twenty-five years ago (dating from 

 1861), its materials being required to mend the adjoining road. 

 Between twenty and thirty urns were discovered, which, from 

 some specimens still preserved, appear to have belonged to the 

 earliest era of barrow burial. At the west end of the village, on 

 the brow of the hill, are rude ramparts of earthworks very 

 confused and ill-defined, which are probably the relics of a very 

 early Celtic location contemporaneous with the barrows above 

 mentioned." 



Notes from Warne's "Ancient Dorset" (1872). Referring to 

 the defensive and military works of the Durotriges (p. 33) he 

 mentions an inherent defect, viz. : " their almost universal 

 deficiency in and want of water." 



Elsewhere the same author, whilst combating the notion of 

 the existence of a Roman road out of Wareham, says that 

 " A careful examination of the neighbourhood fails to disclose 

 any such road, although there are traces of a British trackway 

 which, proceeding from this town, ultimately becomes lost or 

 confused with a dyke which in many places is to be seen as 

 a marked object, pursuing a very irregular course westward 

 through the district of Durngueis " (Saxon Thornsaeta). He was 

 then referring to " Certain ditches in Dorset called Belgic." 



On the whole, neither of the above quoted authors gives us 

 much information as to the really remarkable series of earth- 

 works, whose position may be gathered from the Plan of Worgret 

 Hill (Fig. i). The principal earthwork hereabouts, which is 

 close to the mouth of the Well, is in the form of a cross, and it is 

 obviously a flanking termination to the long series of straight 

 dykes stretching away to the westward. Besides its object as 

 protecting the eastern flank of the general system, the north- 

 eastern limb of the cross in passing over four contour lines 

 connects the dry plateau above with the springs which ooze out 

 of the hill side at the junction of the Higher Sands (see Fig. 2) 

 with the Higher Clay. In this particular instance, then, the 



