Monument record MDO1293 - Winterbourne Poor Lot: enclosure, possible hut circle or pond barrow

Possible hut circle or pond barrow lying within the Winterbourne Poor Lot Barrow Group. The site is visible as cropmarks and earthworks on aerial photographs. {1-2}

Excavated in April 1953 by R J C Atkinson, who excavated an adjacent pond barrow the year before. The ring bank enclosed a circle of small pits covered by a pavement of flints which extended as a pathway through the entrance on the SSE where it was flanked by a pair of pits. The circle of pits in this barrow was incomplete, and there were two is barrow had an incomplete circle of pits and there were two pits in the enclosure that did not form part of the circle. <4>

Causeway at South East, Excavated, incomplete circle of small pits (only 4 or possibly 5 out of 8) Two eccentric pits, on South and West. Elongated flint pavement extended as a path way through entrance, stray scraps of cinerary urn. <5>

<1> Royal Air Force, 17-JAN-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1934 5099-100 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11149.

<2> 02-APR-1969, NMR OS/69053/002-3 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11139.

<3> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments England, 1952, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume I (West), 129 (Monograph). SDO97.

‘(7) Barrows etc. (Plate 106), between the 400 ft. and 500 ft. contours on the E. part of Black Down and on the E. side of the parish, are twenty in number: … (m) ringwork, 160 yards W.S.W. of (k), consists of an oval depression 1½ ft. deep and 33 ft. to 25 ft. in diam. with a surrounding bank 10 ft. wide and 1 ft. high having an opening towards the E.S.E. The present appearance is that of a hut-hollow, but the position is unusual for habitation and it may be a work of the "pond-barrow" type. Extending S.S.E. from near the entrance is a low bank, which turns twice, once towards the S.S.W. and finally to the N.W.’

<4> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1956, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1954, 89 (Serial). SDO54.

<5> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows (Monograph). SDO132.

<6> Papworth, M, 1983, The South Dorset Ridgeway Project: condition and management survey, SDR 103 (Index). SDO12304.

Visible as a slight depression 9.0m in diameter, 0.1m deep with no visible trace of a bank. Situated in a regularly ploughed field recently sown with grass. 7/6/E

Record last edited

Aug 29 2024 11:13AM