Monument record MDO5258 - Bell barrow north west of West Down, Winterborne Kingston

A bell barrow. In 1970 this monument was reported as being around 60 feet in diameter with a mound about 5½ feet high. Previously interpreted as a bowl barrow, this monument is now thought to be a bell barrow. The site of this barrow is visible as earthworks on lidar imagery and was digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM.

'A' and 'B' Two bowl barrows, both 16 paces diameter and 4 1/2ft high with hollow centres. <2>

SY 840983 Two round barrows excavated by MOW in 1968: <3>

'A' (25) SY 84039831 Bowl barrow, about 60ft diameter and 5 1/2ft high has been dug into in the past. <4>

'A' Grinsell's Winterborne Kingston bowl barrow. No 14 (SY 83039831) was re-interpreted as a bell barrow when excavated in 1968. The mound had apparently been built over a funeral pyre supported by four oak stakes, radio carbon assay on samples of charcoal from these stakes gave a dating of 2970+- 95 BP (about 1000 BC). Some cremated bone was found, although a pit dug into the pyre deposit suggested that the cremation had been removed for burial elsewhere. Two secondary burials in Deverel-Rimbury urns were found in the south part of the berm. Romano-British activity was represented by pottery in the upper fill of the barrow ditches and by shallow linear ditches. The small amount of pottery from pre-barrow occupation of the site included two rim sherds of bell beaker; a few flint scrapers were also found in the barrow mound. Plan. <5>

A-B: Both these barrows are covered with dense vegetation making close inspection difficult, but they appear to be elongated mounds, with no visible ditches, which have been reduced by ploughing at their margins. 'A'. SY 84039831. Bell barrow, approximately 12.0 by 8.0 metres in diameter; height 1.6 metres. Resurveyed at 1:2500 on M.S.D. <6>

The site of this barrow is visible as earthworks on lidar imagery and was digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM. <8>

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1902 (Map). SWX1540.

('A' SY 84039831; 'B' SY 84059832) Tumuli (NR)

<2> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 150 (Monograph). SDO132.

<3> Council for British Archaeology, 1968, Council for British Archaeology: Group 12 (Wessex) & Group 13 (South West): Archaeological review (Serial). SWX9211.

<4> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 2, 303-304 (Monograph). SDO136.

‘These monuments lie in the N. and W. of the parish; most of them have been damaged, some severely so, by ploughing. … Nos. (25) and (26) are possibly the barrows 'on South Down Farm' from which came two globular urns (C.T.D., Pl. VI; Arch. J. CXIX (1962), 57). … Two barrows N.W. of West Down, lie on a gentle E. slope, near the top of a broad spur, at about 260 ft. O.D. The hedge marking the parish boundary with Winterborne Whitechurch crosses their northern edge and both mounds are thickly overgrown. … (25) Bowl (84039831) has been dug into in the past. Diam. about 60 ft., ht. 5½ ft.’

<5> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1973, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1972, 37-43 (Serial). SDO72.

<6> Barton, J G, Various, Field Investigators Comments JGB, F1 JGB 15/05/1981 (Unpublished document). SDO11900.

<7> National Record of the Historic Environment, 455995 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

<8> Environment Agency, 16-NOV-2021, LIDAR Environment Agency DTM (Aerial Photograph). SDO18034.

Record last edited

Jun 20 2023 5:28PM