Monument record MDO6385 - Ring ditch on the edge of Harley Down, Wimborne St Giles

A circular cropmark seen and photographed from the air in 1984 by Martin Green, who interpreted it as a ring ditch and probably the remains of a bowl barrow. The ditch was around 24 metres in diameter. Subsequent field walking did not reveal any surviving trace of a mound. A sub-circular cropmark at this location is visible on a 1980 and a 2009 aerial photographs and was digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

SU 0159 1287. During a routine flight, a ring-ditch approximately 24 m in diameter has been found on the edge of Hanley Down, to the South of Monkton-Up-Wimborne. Diameter 24m. <2>

A sub-circular cropmark at this location is visible on a 1980 aerial photograph <1>. A clear outer ditch to the feature is visibble on a 2009 aerial photograph <3>.

The feature measures 24.2m across, with a 20m in diameter central mound and a 1.6m wide outer ditch. They are considered to represent a probable Bronze Age barrow.

The feature was digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

<1> National Monuments Record, 08-MAY-80, NMR 1762/213 SU0112/007 (Aerial Photograph). SDO15825.

<2> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1986, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1985, 154-155 (Serial). SDO85.

'AN UNRECORDED RING DITCH IN WIMBORNE ST GILES PARISH.
During a routine flight in July 1984 a very clear ring ditch crop mark was showing on the edge of Harley Down, due south of Monkton-Up-Wimborne at SU 01591287. It lies on an east facing slope about 300 ft above sea level and is approximately 24 m in diameter. The diameter suggests it is most likely to be a bowl barrow, although no vestigate of a mound was visible in pasture conditions when the field was walked this winter. The closest know barrow or ring ditch is the disc barrow on the same piece of downland 1½ km north west (Grinsell’s Gussage St Michael 17A) although the extensive Drive Plantation and Wyke Down cemeteries lie only 1¾ km and 2¼ km due north respectively.
The area (about 9 km²) north of the Gussage Brook and west of the River Allen from Bowerswain to Monkton-Up-Wimborne and bounded on the north by the Ackling Dyke is, apart from this example, apparently devoid of ring ditches or round barrows. This is particularly surprising considering the otherwise dense distribution of these monuments in the surrounding area. The two bowl barrows recorded by Grinsell on Harley Down (Gussage All Saints Nos 1 and 2) are both very doubtful and are more likely to be parts of an iron age earthwork now known to exist in this field.
A copy print of the slide has been deposited in the Dorset County Museum, catalogue no. P.23, 623.’

<3> Dorset County Council, XX-XXX-2009, Dorset CC Vertical Digital Photo Tile, 3 (Aerial Photograph). SDO13314.

<4> National Record of the Historic Environment, 890395 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Dec 8 2022 11:14AM