Monument record MDO277 - Triple bowl barrow, Bincombe

Three closely-spaced Bronze Age bowl barrows are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs. One or more of these may have been opened by antiquarian Charles Warne.

This barrow was 21 paces in diameter and 8 3/4 feet in height. These three barrows were described as a triple barrow, they are so closely spaced that none is precisely circular in plan. <1>

Group of round barrows on Bincombe Hill:

(A) Triple bowl (69028458) aligned north west-south east immediately above 500 ft. contour. From west to east diameters and heights of mounds are: 65 ft. and 8 1/2ft. 68 ft. and 9 ft.; 67 ft. and. 7 ft. There is no sign of a ditch around or between the mounds.

Warne's No 43 was probably the largest mound of the triple barrow 'A' and hit No 6 was almost certainly one of the others
near it. <1-2>

'A' SY 69028458. Triple bowl barrows; diameters from NW to SE: 20.0m, 23.5m, 23.0m, heights: 2.5m, 1.9m, 2.0m. No visible ditches. The central barrow has been mutilated by excavation in the centre. Barrows A, B, C and D are in pasture and have been ploughed. Re-surveyed at 1:2500 on MSD. <4>

This group of barrows is probably part of those excavated by the Rev J J Smith in 1842. <6>

The sites of three Bronze Age bowl barrows are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs <8-9>. Robber pits are visible in the western-most two. The features, which form part of a larger linear barrow cemetery, were digitally plotted during the South Dorset Ridgeway Mapping Project.

<1> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 91 (Monograph). SDO132.

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 439 (Monograph). SDO150.

‘(R. 10) BINCOMBE HILL GROUP (SY 68 SE, NE; Fig. p. 24). Twenty barrows, including a triple bowl and a bell, on one of the only two spurs jutting S. from the Ridgeway. The group is arranged in a rough semi-circle open to the E., curving along the domed top of the spur above the 500 ft. contour, and ending to the N.E. in Came Wood. To the S.E. it ends in a straight line of a triple bowl, a bell and two bowls (44–7), dramatically sited immediately to the S. of the highest point of the spur but visible on the skyline from many points and especially from the Broadmayne bank barrow. They are now preserved under grass among Ancient Field Group (8) (Fig. p. 627) but are damaged by central excavations.
Apart from four outliers, the group can be sub-divided into linear cemeteries of seven and eight barrows respectively at the S. and N. ends of the semicircle, with a long barrow (Bincombe (12)) and a bowl barrow roughly at the centre of the curve in the most westerly position. Most have been damaged by ploughing and now only appear as low, spread rises.
Some of the barrows excavated on the Ridgeway in Bincombe were possibly in this group. Warne's no. 43 (C.T.D., mopr) was probably the largest mound of the triple barrow (44) and his no. 6 (C.T.D., tovp), was almost certainly one of the others near it. In the former a primary cremation lay under an extended inhumation 8 ft. to 9 ft. below the top of the mound; two similar inhumations were about 2 ft. below the top of the mound, all three lying E.-W. in stone-lined graves. The latter contained a primary inurned cremation in a stone cist, above which were three extended inhumations. The group is described from the S. around the semicircle formed by the barrows.
(44) Triple bowl (69028458) aligned N.W.-S.E. immediately above 500 ft. contour. From W. to E. diams. and hts. of mounds are: 64 ft. and 8½ ft.; 68 ft. and 9 ft.; 67 ft. and 7 ft. There is no sign of a ditch around or between the mounds.’

<3> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey 1:10,000 scale map, 1978 (Map). SDO17396.

(Centred SY 690845) Tumuli [NR]

<4> Barton, J G, Various, Field Investigators Comments JGB, F1 JGB 04-JUL-80 (Unpublished document). SDO11900.

<5> Papworth, M, 1983, The South Dorset Ridgeway Project: condition and management survey, SDR 509 (Index). SDO12304.

Situated in permanent pasture with a flock of sheep grazing when visited. Visible as a prominent rise, covered in established grass. A SE/NW fence passes immediately NE, of the mound. SE mound has two faint hollows in top. NW mound has a berm like swelling 0.1m high and 3.0m wide restricted to its NW side. 1/2/A

<6> Fitzgerald, R J, RCHME Fieldworker's Comments RJF, R1 RJF 08-OCT-1991 (Unpublished document). SWX2638.

<7> Wessex Archaeology, 2011, South Dorset Ridgeway Barrow Survey 2010 (Unpublished document). SDO12407.

<8> Royal Air Force, 04-NOV-1946, RAF/CPE/UK/1824 3242 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11964.

<9> 06-DEC-2006, NMR SY6984/14-17 (24498/35-41) (Aerial Photograph). SDO11965.

<10> National Record of the Historic Environment, 452697 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jan 16 2025 6:40PM