Monument record MDO1054 - Laurence Barrow, Dorchester

A bowl barrow situated on the shoulder of a hill. This monument was destroyed in 1885. The antiquarian Edward Cunnington described it as a mound 35 feet in diameter and 11 feet high, and recorded the finding of a cremation with a copper dagger and knife-dagger. A collared urn was found during earlier investigations.

Has been destroyed, excavated by E Cunnington, primary cremation, in plain collared Early/Middle Bronze Age urn, with grooved bronze dagger, 8.75in. Long and knife-dagger 3.5in. Long with two rivets, there was also a flint axe which may have been ceremonially broken. <4>

Bowl-barrow destroyed in AD 1885. Excavated and numbered No.7 by Cunnington. Excavation produced a primary (?) cremation in a plain collared MBA urn, with an ogival bronze dagger and a knife dagger with rivets, also a broken flint axe. The finds are all in Dorset County Museum. <2-4>

(SY 68509059). The area is under lawn and no trace of the barrow remains. A tall stone pillar set in a hedge and apparently uninscribed marks the site.<5>

<1> Ordnance Survey, Various, Ordnance Survey Map 1:500, 1887 (Map). SWX1328.

(SY 68499059) Lawrence Barrow (Tumulus) (NR) (Site of)

<2> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1891, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club, 19 (Serial). SDO7.

<3> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1905, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club for 1905, 31 (Serial). SDO18.

<4> Grinsell, L V, 1935-54, Dorset Barrows 1935-54 Manuscript (Unpublished document). SWX1556.

<5> Rigg, J, Field Investigators Comments JR, F1 JR 21-AUG-54 (Unpublished document). SWX1255.

<6> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 444 (Monograph). SDO150.

‘(171) Laurence Barrow, bowl (SY 69 SE; 68499059). On shoulder of hill 300 ft. above O.D., formerly surrounded by open fields. A borough boundary stone stood on it. Destroyed 1885. Cunnington gives diam. as 35 ft. and ht. as 11 ft. At a depth of 8 ft. was an apparently secondary cremation with grooved copper dagger 8¾ ins. long and a small flat copper knife-dagger 3½ ins. long (Wessex interment no. 10). A typologically early collared urn had previously been found. Finds in D.C.M. (Butler & Smith, 58, no. 16; Archaeometry 4 (1961), 46-7, nos. 21, 36; P.P.S. XXVII (1961), 294, no. 22.)’

<7> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/093 RCHME Inventory: Dorset II (South-East) (Unpublished document). SDO17434.

<8> National Record of the Historic Environment, 453396 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Aug 22 2024 7:26PM