Monument record MDO3402 - Bowl barrow, one of the Rowden Barrow Group, Winterbourne Steepleton

Site of a probable Bronze Age bowl barrow, recorded as an extant mound by RCHM and also visible as an earthwork and a cropmark on aerial photographs

Group of round barrows: … `D` Bowl barrow 125 yards north north west of `C`, 51 feet diameter by 2 1/2 feet high. <2>

`D` SY 61648905. Barrow; diameter 18.0m., height 1.0m. maximum. `B`, `D` and `F` re-surveyed at 1:2500 on MSD. <3>

Site of a possible Bronze Age bowl barrow, one of a group of several barrows situated in this area (MDO3399-403) and probably associated with the Late Bronze Age settlement earthworks (MDO3411), within which they are interspersed.

Recorded as an extant mound by RCHM <2>. Field investigations in 1981 found that the the mound did not aoppear to have an encircling quarry ditch. Soil survey recorded that the mound was composed of flint and clay soils, presumably gathered from the surrounding area and may in part represent clearance of fields for arable <4>.

This site is also visible as an earthwork and a cropmark on aerial photographs <7-8>, measuring approximately 8 metres in diameter. This site was digitally plotted during the South Dorset Ridgeway Mapping Project.

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1963 (Map). SWX1540.

(`A` - SY 61688886; `B` - SY 61688891) Tumuli (NR) `D` - SY 61648905; `F` - SY 61608904) Tumuli (NR)

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 473 (Monograph). SDO150.

<3> Barton, J G, Various, Field Investigators Comments JGB, F1 JGB 28-MAR-80 (Unpublished document). SDO11900.

<4> Woodward, P J, 1982, The Rowden earthworks (Article in serial). SDO11946.

<5> Papworth, M, 1983, The South Dorset Ridgeway Project: condition and management survey, SDR 211 (Index). SDO12304.

18.0m in diameter and 1.0m high. Reduced and spread by ploughing. Composed of a dark soil with numerous flint nodules. Visible as a low rise in a field of ley pasture which has only been regularly ploughed during the last 10-15 years. 1/5/D

<6> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1992, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1991 (Serial). SDO91.

<7> Royal Air Force, 04-NOV-1946, RAF/CPE/UK/1824 4279-81 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11791.

<8> Royal Air Force, 17-JAN-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1934 3095-6 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11865.

<9> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/093 RCHME Inventory: Dorset II (South-East) (Unpublished document). SDO17434.

<10> Wessex Archaeology, 2011, South Dorset Ridgeway Barrow Survey 2010 (Unpublished document). SDO12407.

<11> National Record of the Historic Environment, 452348 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Oct 8 2024 4:26PM