Monument record MDO6628 - Bowl barrow, one of the Ridgeway Hill Group, Weymouth

A bowl barrow 13m in diameter is visible on aerial photographs as a cropmark ring ditch with an internal bank. The site was digitally plotted during the South Dorset Ridgeway Mapping Project.

Three round barrows: 'A' Ditched bowl barrow (SY 67268580) Ploughed almost flat. Excavated 1963. Mound built from periphery towards centre. Primary burial robbed; three secondary cremations, two unaccompanied, one in inverted collared urn. Ditch 6 1/2 ft. wide and 5 ft. deep, with two carbonised timbers about 4 ft. long on primary silt. Overall diam. 59 ft. <1> <3-4>

'A' SY 67258579 Bowl barrow of diameter 18.0m and height 0.2m. No visible ditch. 'A' resurveyed and 'B' surveyed at 1:2500 on MSD. <5>

An RCHME level 3 air photographic interpretation project (Event UID 932322) was carried out on this monument in October 1993. The changes noted were as follows: 'A' SY 67268580 This barrow appears as a central mound with a shallow scooped ditch surrounding it.
The archive produced by this project (Collection UID 932274) is held by the RCHME. <7>

A bowl barrow 13m in diameter is visible on aerial photographs <9> as a cropmark ring ditch with an internal bank. The site was digitally plotted during the South Dorset Ridgeway Mapping Project.

<1> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 91 (Monograph). SDO132.

<2> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1963 (Map). SWX1540.

<3> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1965, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1964, 102 (Serial). SDO64.

<4> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 456 (Monograph). SDO150.

'(R.8) RIDGEWAY HILL GROUP (SY 68 NE). Twenty-one barrows, about 300 yds. S.E. of the E. end of Group R.7, strung irregularly along the broad Ridgeway top here running over and between two rises defined by 500 ft. ring contours. The W. part of the group is in Weymouth, the E. in Bincombe, amongst Ancient Field Group (7). Most of the barrows have been damaged by ploughing and excavation: eleven, opened in the 19th century cannot now be identified, but three of Warne's excavations can probably be located (Weymouth (412–14); see also Archaeologia xxx (1844), 333, nos. 13–15). Four barrows have been excavated this century, one by Prideaux in 1922 (Bincombe (24)) and three by Mrs. M. E. Robertson-Mackay for the Ministry of Public Building and Works in 1963 (Weymouth (416), Bincombe (25, 27)). … Weymouth: (416) Ditched bowl (67268580) 130 yds. S.E. of last. Ploughed almost flat. Excavated 1963. Mound built from periphery towards centre. Primary burial robbed; three secondary cremations, two unaccompanied, one in inverted collared urn. Ditch, 6½ ft. wide and 5 ft. deep, with two carbonised timbers about 4 ft. long on primary silt. Overall diam. 59 ft. (Information from excavator; Dorset Procs. LXXXVI (1964), 102.) '

<5> Barton, J G, Various, Field Investigators Comments JGB, F1 JGB 02-FEB-80 (Unpublished document). SDO11900.

<6> Papworth, M, 1983, The South Dorset Ridgeway Project: condition and management survey, SDR 456 (Index). SDO12304.

Reduced and spread by ploughing. 18.0m diameter and 0.2m high. Visible as a faint rise. 1/6/E

<7> Crutchley, Simon, RCHME: A354 Dorchester to Weymouth Project, 01-OCT-1993 (Unpublished document). SDO20404.

<8> Wessex Archaeology, 2011, South Dorset Ridgeway Barrow Survey 2010 (Unpublished document). SDO12407.

<9> 31-MAR-1934, NMR SY6785/5 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11848.

<10> Royal Air Force, 22-JAN-1948, RAF/CPE/UK/2431 RS 4205-6, 452159 (Aerial Photograph). SDO14793.

Record last edited

Dec 22 2023 6:51PM