Monument record MDO5624 - Bowl Barrow on Week Street Down, Gussage St Michael

Eight barrows (A-H) are scatterd over the E. slopes of Week Street Down between 220 ft., and 280 ft. above O.D. All have been greatly reduced by heavy ploughing. They were probably all opened by Warne in 1848, but it is not possible to correlate his account with individual barrows. From the barrows excavated he recorded the following: No 15, a primary inhumation and a secondary cremation in a cist; No. 16, two secondary or intrusive inhumations; No. 17, a very low mound, a primary crouched inhumation; No. 18, an urn from the centre and a secondary cremation to the N.W. with remains of a small urn; No. 19, six cremations in cists, two with fragments of urns; No. 20, a cremation with pottery in a cist, and a large urn containing a cremation; No. 21 no finds.

(F) Bowl (96961324); diam. about 30 ft., ht. under l ft. <5>

ST 9696 1328. At least 3 cremations on Week Street Down were ploughed out in 1970. One was in a plain bucket-urn; the others were probable urn sherds, one fingertip-decorated. Part of a Deverel-Rimbury Cemetery? <6>

Listed by Grinsell as either Gussage St Michael 5 or 6 (his grid references are a little at odds with those of RCHME and the Ordnance Survey).

Fieldwork by RCHME recorded the barrow as a mound 30 feet in diameter and less than 1 foot high, this may have been one of the barrows opened by Warne in 1848. This may also be the barrow from which ploughing in 1970 uncovered at least 3 cremations apparently associated with Deverel-Rimbury pottery. Grinsell refers this discovery to his barrow 5.

<1> Warne, C, 1866, The Celtic Tumuli of Dorset (1866), 1:1 (Monograph). SWX8166.

<2> Hutchins, J, 1868, The History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset. Volume 3. 3rd edition, p136-137 (Monograph). SDO11486.

<3> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 112 (Monograph). SDO132.

<4> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1963 (Map). SWX1540.

(Centred ST 968130) Tumulus (NR) (4 times) Tumuli (NR)

<5> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), p26 (Monograph). SDO129.

'Eight barrows (18-25) are scattered over the E. slopes of Week Street Down between 220 ft., and 280 ft. above O.D. All have been greatly reduced by heavy ploughing. They were probably all opened by Warne in 1848, but it is not possible to correlate his account with individual barrows (C.T.D., Pt. I, Nos. 15-21). From the barrows excavated he recorded the following: No. 15, a primary inhumation and a secondary cremation in a cist; No. 16, two secondary or intrusive inhumations; No. 17, a very low mound, a primary crouched inhumation; No. 18, an urn from the centre and a secondary cremation to the N.W. with remains of a small urn; No. 19, six cremations in cists, two with fragments of urns; No. 20, a cremation with pottery in a cist, and a large urn containing a cremation; No. 21, no finds. … (23) Bowl (96961324); diam. About 30 ft., ht. under 1 ft.'

<6> Grinsell, L V, 1982, Dorset Barrows Supplement, 40 (Monograph). SWX1703.

<7> National Record of the Historic Environment, 210072 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

<8> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1302938 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Mar 7 2024 4:46PM