EDO4340 - Western Barrow, 'Two Barrows', Dorchester; observations and recording 1978

Observations conducted by Christopher Sparey Green during widening of the road foundation in 1978, north of Hardye’s School grounds and 300 m west of Fordington Farm, revealed part of the mound and western multiple ditches of a round barrow, probably the western of the ‘Two Barrows’ known from topographical records and antiquarian accounts. The road works entailed the excavation of trench for the widening of the road foundation and the addition of a new southern kerb. This trench was 2m wide by approximately 0.65m deep, the southern section lying some 1.50m north of the Hardye's School boundary. It extended some 90m up to a point opposite the SW corner of St. Mary's school; recording was limited to the eastern 14m where the trench impinged on the monument. A mound structure of at least two phases, each enclosed by a ditch, may have succeeded an initial turf mound. No burials were observed, the centre of the barrow perhaps lying southeast beneath Hardye’s School’s northern boundary. The only finds consisted of a barbed and tanged arrowhead found incorporated in the turf mound, and a deposit of in situ flint knapping debris on the old ground surface beneath it. The barrow is identified with the site of a Wessex burial found in the last century, the location of which has been lost.