Monument record MDO21302 - Disc barrow, one of the Third Milestone Barrow Group, Winterborne St Martin

A possible Bronze Age disc barrow is visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs. It forms part of a wider group of prehistoric ritual/burial monuments at this location.

A bowl barrow excavated in 1840 by Sydenham and Warne. At the time, the mound was about 8 feet high and 30 feet in diameter. It comprised chalk and earth, with a cairn of flint at its core. Beneath theis flint cairn was a pit 5 feet in diameter and dug 5 feet deep into the chalk. At the bottom of the pit were three skeletons that, according to Warne, had been "interred without any attention to regularity". Above these skeletons was a deposit of chalk and earth (a foot deep according to Sydenham, deeper according to Warne), upon which was another skeleton. Above this interment was another deposit of chalk and earth, about a foot deep, and once again another skeleton lay upon this, again concealed beneath earth and chalk. Two further inhumations were found in the mound, apparently within the outer earth and chalk capping rather than the flint cairn. No artefacts were recovered. Both Sydenham and Warne refer to charcoal, "black mould and other usual indications of cremation" being present in both the mound and the pit fill, but no reference is made to any cremated bone being present. Identifying this barrow on the ground has proved difficult. Neither Sydenham nor Warne provided enough locational detail to identify it with confidence. Grinsell assumed it to be one of the Rew Group (SY 69 SW 49), whereas RCHME suggested that it was probably one of their "Third Milestone Group" (SY 69 SW 51). The latter is followed here. See those records and their associated monuments for additional sources and information. With regard to numbering schemes, Grinsell lists it as Winterborne St Martin 5c, although he suggests that it should be identified with one of Winterborne St Martin 1-5. In the RCHME scheme, it is one of the barrows Winterborne St Martin 114-118, some of which are listed by Grinsell as his numbers 6-8. Perfectly straightforward. [NB the excavation described above was formerly recorded as part of SY 69 SW 72. See that record for additional sources and information]


A possible Bronze Age disc barrow is visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs, approximately 33m diameter. It forms part of a wider group of prehistoric ritual/burial monuments at this location, running in an irregular east-west line on the crest of a ridge immediately south of the A35 (Roman road RR 4f). They may be contemporary with one another or the result of separate phases of construction of the monument, such as the re-use or adoption of a Neolithic monument in the Bronze Age. {1}

National Record of the Historic Environment, 1267516 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 151 (Monograph). SDO132.

Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 470 (Monograph). SDO150.

<1> 29-OCT-1997, NMR SY6490/2 (15847/08) (Aerial Photograph). SDO11148.

<2> Wessex Archaeology, 2011, South Dorset Ridgeway Barrow Survey 2010 (Unpublished document). SDO12407.

Record last edited

Oct 26 2023 2:57PM