WORGRET HILL AN + D WAREHAM WATER SUPPLY. 1 5 1 



criticism of Warne, above quoted, does not apply, since the 

 system of earthworks seems to have secured for its occupants a 

 sufficient water supply. Moreover, there is a probability that by 

 means of this peculiar cruciform dyke communication was main- 

 tained with a dyke running at a much lower level through what 

 is now Wareham Common in the direction of this bend of the 

 North river. No one who stands on the eastern edge of the 

 Worgret platform, in view of the fine spread of country towards 

 the great estuary, can have any doubt as to the strategic impor- 

 tance of this commanding and peculiar position which must 

 have been recognised from the earliest ages. Whoever con- 

 structed this complex series of earthworks must have been alive 

 to the necessity of a flanking protection for the " Battery Bank" 

 system, and also to the importance of maintaining touch with 

 the lower country which the sudden drop in the height of the 

 platform seems to require. The numerous single tumuli further 

 attest the interest of the position. On the whole it is a matter 

 of surprise that the archaeologists have not investigated this place 

 with more attention to detail.* 



GEOLOGICAL POSITION OF WORGRET HILL. 



As regards its geological features, Worgret Hill may be said 

 to occupy a central position in the great trough or syncline of 

 Wareham, f being about equidistant from the outcrops on either 



* The following note from Mr. J. A. Drew is dated June 22nd, 1906 : " I have 

 traced the ancient roadway or dyke, which appears to have commenced from the 

 direction of the N.W. corner of the Town Walls, and continues through the 

 Common and across the low ground north of Worgret Hill to the foot of the dyke 

 running north and south, which forms the western boundary of the Waterworks 

 site. Is it possible that the ancient earthworks which form the Walls of 

 Wareham belong to the same period as these dykes, which are so numerous in the 

 heath land around the town ? The formation of some of the dykes is similar to 

 the Walls, viz., a central mound with a vallum on either side, from which the 

 earth was taken to form the mound." 



f For a diagrammatic sketch of the Trough of Wareham, see Proc. Dorset 

 Field Club, Vol. XXIII., p. 148. 



