Monument record MDO30128 - Mound on Askerswell Down, Litton Cheney

A mound once interpreted as a possible Bronze Age bowl barrow, though thought more likely to be a spoil heap. Excavation by John Wacher in 1956 showed this feature was not an antiquity.

Probably spoil heaps. <2>

Two mounds each 6 paces in diameter and 2 1/2 ft high. Both are doubtful bowl barrows, and may be upcast from fairly recent diggings. <3>

Two grass covered mounds, each 6.0m in diameter and 0.7m high, with no visible surrounding ditches. Both mounds are in poor condition, dug into and rabbitted. There has been much surface quarrying in the vicinity, and the mounds may be heaps of overburden. Doubtful bowl barrows. <4>

Spoil mounds. <5>

Mounds now ploughed out and deleted from field doc. <6>

Both mounds were excavated in 1956 and shown to be mounds of earth, probably spoil from quarring. <7>

Full excavation report. <9>

Totally excavated and reconstituted, barrow was surrounded by wide and shallow flat-bottomed ditch, a roughly circular pit in the chalk at the centre of the mound was sterile, above it was a primary extended adult male inhumation, both hands may not have been severed and buried first but slipped through the other bones after the body had decayed and almost above the grave was a post hole , Near the surface were the remains of a secondary inurned, upright urn of D/R type, too crushed to be restored , probably Bronze Age. <8> <10>

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1903 (Map). SWX1540.

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments England, 1952, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume I (West), 137 (Monograph). SDO97.

‘(14) BOWL BARROW and MOUNDS, to the N. of the road and 1,180 yards N. of the church. The barrow, (a), 270 yards W. of the cross-roads, is 33 ft. in diam. and 2½ fft. High. The two mounds, (b), 233 yards W. of the barrow, 19 ft. in diam. and 3 ft. high and (c), immediately N.E. of (b), 25 ft. in diam. and 3½ ft. high, may be barrows but are more probably spoil heaps.’

<3> Grinsell, L V, 1935-54, Dorset Barrows 1935-54 Manuscript (Unpublished document). SWX1556.

<4> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, F1 NVQ 27-APR-55 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<5> Colquhoun, F D, Field Investigators Comments FDC, RCHME Recording FDC 05-MAY-55 (Unpublished document). SWX2609.

<6> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Large Scale/Small Scale Map Reviser's comments, ss 6" (A.MeVie. Revised 25-JAN-1956) (Verbal communication). SDO19451.

<7> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1957, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1956, 84 (Serial). SDO56.

<8> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows (Monograph). SDO132.

‘| 7, 7a | N. of 4 M.S. Bridport | SY55129182 | [Diameter] 6 | [Height] 2½ | Two mounds, each of this size, both doubtful: upcast from fairly recent diggings ? Excavation by JSW in 1956 confirmed that these were not barrows; Dorset Proc lxxviii, 84.’

<9> Wacher, J, 1959, Litton Cheney Excavations 1956. Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society (Article in serial). SDO20577.

<10> Grinsell, L V, 1982, Dorset Barrows Supplement (Monograph). SWX1703.

‘| 7, 7a | N. of 4MS Bridport | SY55129182 | [Diameter in paces] | [Height in feet] | Add: Wacher’s excavation of 1956 showed these mounds to be spoil-heaps overlying the ditch of a destroyed round barrow. Wacher, 1959, 161.’

<11> National Record of the Historic Environment, 451100 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Mar 15 2024 11:00AM