Monument record RMA 026 - Drill Ground

An irregular pattern of parallel shallow ditches, approximately one metre wide and one to two metres apart, possibly the remains of a military 'drill ground' marked on the first and second edition Ordnance Survey maps (S1, S2), can be seen as earthworks on aerial photographs on Rushmere Heath, Rushmere St Andrew parish, centred on circa TM200445. The earthworks resemble vehicle tracks or footpaths but do not actually interconnect with each other, or the surrounding paths. It is possible they were worn by the feet of drilling soldiers marching on set routes (S3).
Sept 2008: boundaries re-aligned to correspond to drill ground delineated on 1900s OS map (S2). The earthworks appear to relate to this phase rather than the area delineated on the 1880s OS map which is smaller.