Monument record MDO28077 - Poor Lot Barrow Group

‘Poor Lot Group (SY 59 SE; Fig. p.460, Plate 210). Forty-four barrows lie around the junction of three parishes. Twenty are in Kingston Russell (Dorset I, 129), six in Little Bredy (ibid., 38), and eighteen, described below, in Winterbourne Abbas. Within the group, here considered as a whole, are seven bells, two (26-7) perhaps forming a double barrow, six disc and four, possibly five, pond barrows, two bell-disc barrows, two triple bowls, and twenty-two bowls. It lies nearly ½ mile N. of the Ridgeway on relatively low-lying ground which is, nevertheless, some 450 ft. above O.D., and near the head of a valley winding down to the E. The group includes two irregular but marked alignments (Kingston Russell (7c-k); Kingston Russell (7p-t) and Little Bredy (8a) strung along the edges of a minor plateau jutting N.E. into the valley bottom from the foot of the Ridgeway. Kingston Russell (7a and b), though separated from these alignments, lie in a similar position on the N.W. edge of the plateau and, like the N. alignment, appear silhouetted on the plateau edge when viewed from the Ridgeway.

From the plateau, which drops sharply on all sides except the S.W., can be seen not only the other barrows in the group, but also the isolated Kingston Russell (6a-c), the two long barrows Kingston Russell (6d) and (6i), and the bank barrow Long Bredy (8) stretched across the end of Group R on Martin’s Down, 1 mile to the W. All the barrows in the group, except Kingston Russell (7i) and (7l) and Winterbourne Abbas (20) and (21) on the N.-facing slope, are visible from the Ridgeway at Little Bredy (9a). All those on Fig. p.460, as well as Long Bredy (8), are visible from the triple barrow (24).

Three barrows of rare types (Kingston Russell (7m, n and o)) are roughly in the centre of the plateau on nearly level ground forming a short alignment pointing in each direction to a disc barrow (Kingston Russell (7j and s)). The two pond barrows (Kingston Russell (7m, n)), excavated in 1952-3 and since almost obliterated, both contained pits and flint paving but no burials (Dorset Procs. LXXVI (1954), 89). The E. end of each of the major alignments is marked by a disc barrow, a large bell barrow and a short line of small barrows, mostly bowls, running across the axis of the major alignment. Outside this short line, at the E. end of the N. alignment, is a triple bowl barrow (22) just off the crest of the N.E. slope. A second triple bowl (24) lies, also just off the crest, on the S.W. slope on the other side of the valley. Below it is a disc barrow (23), clearly visible from the valley floor.

On the narrow valley floor four barrows (26-7, 39-30) plausibly form a focus for the group, a suggestion supported by the position of another disc barrow (31) about 300 yds. to the S.E. on a N.W. slope visible from and dropping towards the four ‘local’ barrows.

Despite the apparent importance of the group, no finds are recorded from it except a few sherds from Kingston Russell (7n and m), the only excavated barrows. The only certain relative date is that bell barrow Little Bredy (8a) is later than disc barrow Kingston Russell (7p) (Dorset I, xxxii, 129). Many of the barrows have now been damaged by ploughing the smaller ones in particular appearing as flinty mounds. Some mounds were scraped up (e.g. (20) and (21)), others were from continuous ditches (e.g. (28)) and others were thrown up or down-hill from a ditch on one side or the other (e.g. (22)). A mound 2½ ft. high (LVG 8b) N.E. of (24) is almost certainly spoil from an adjoining pit.

Barrows (14-21) form a short line running roughly N.-S. across the axis of the N. alignment.’ (1)

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 461-463 (Monograph). SDO150.

Record last edited

Jan 23 2025 10:40AM