YOUR article in Saturday’s Echo Magazine (When Saxons Ruled, 12/3/11) made rather too much of Coombs Ditch. The article described it as a second Romano-British defence against the ravages of Saxon invasion.
Coombs Ditch runs along part of the ridge East of the Winterbourne valley but any visitor will notice it is tiny and wrongly placed for useful defence being positioned on the crest of the ridge not the brow.
The article emphasised Saxon place names in Dorset. Yet, unlike Hampshire, Dorset retains many Celtic place names including Pentridge (Pen Tyrch – Boar Hill) hard behind Dorset’s border defence of Bockerley Dike.
These place names are a lasting reminder that Dorset long held back the Saxon hordes. Indeed there is much evidence to support the assertion that the famous Arthur (he was never historically a king) was actually from Dorset.
DR MARTIN RODGER, Bloxworth Road, Poole
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