Monument record MDO1294 - Winterbourne Poor Lot: pond barrow

Bronze Age pond barrow forming part of the Winterbourne Poor Lot Barrow Group. The site is visible as earthworks and cropmarks on aerial photographs.

Bronze Age bowl barrow forming part of the Winterbourne Poor Lot Barrow Group. The site is visible as earthworks and cropmarks on aerial photographs. {1-2}

Excavated in September 1952 by R J C Atkinson, who excavated an adjacent pond barrow the following year. The ring bank enclosed a circle of small pits covered by a circular pavement 22 feet in diameter made of flints, and extending as a pathway through the entrance on the south-east side where it was flanked by a pair of pits. <4>

Causeway at South East, excavated in 1952, central circle (15ft. in diam) of 8 small pits, covered by flint pavement 22ft. in diam, extended as pathway through entrance, pair of additional small pits on either side of junction of path with pavement. No pottery apart from stray scraps of cinerary urn, there is evidence of disturbance in Romano-British times. <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.; (n), work similar to (m) and 17 yards S.W. of it, is 24 ft. in diam. and 1 ft. deep with a bank 10 ft. wide and ¾ ft. high having an opening on the E.S.E’

<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 102 (Index). SDO12304.

Faint unsurveyable depression remains, no trace of a bank. The barrow is situated in a regularly ploughed field recently planted with grass. 7/6/E

<7> Wessex Archaeology, 2011, South Dorset Ridgeway Barrow Survey 2010 (Unpublished document). SDO12407.

Record last edited

Jul 22 2020 4:41PM