Monument record MDO2041 - Bowl barrow, one of the Black Down Barrow Group, Portesham

Cross trenches suggest either former excavation, or use as a windmill-stead. This may be the barrow excavated by Cunnington. <3>

Bowl immediately east of Hardy Monument. Diam 20 ft ht 1 ft. <5>

Site of a probable Bronze Age bowl barrow, one of a group of potential barrows situated on Black Down. It measures 8m meters in diameter and 0.35 meters high. Grinsell <3> noted the presence of cross trenches, which he suggested either represented an excavation, or the use of the barrow as a windmill mound. Thus it may have been the barrow excavated by Cunnington in 1878. However, Cunnington described that barrow as being about 100 yards north of the Hardy Monument, which this barrow is not and there is no known barrow 100 yards north of the Hardy Monument. Cunnington is usually presumed to have excavated barrow (MDO2044), which is the right distance from the monument, but south rather than north. <5>

<1> Cunnington, E, 1915, Cunnington MSS (Unpublished document). SDO10110.

<2> Thompson, M W, and Ashbee, P, 1957, Excavation of a barrow near the Hardy monument, Black Down, Portesham, Dorset; Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 23 (Article in serial). SDO17266.

<3> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 126 (Monograph). SDO132.

<4> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1963 (Map). SWX1540.

<5> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 449 (Monograph). SDO150.

<6> Papworth, M, 1983, The South Dorset Ridgeway Project: condition and management survey, SDR 207 (Index). SDO12304.

Very faint swelling. N half grass covered. S half gravel covered. 7/6/E

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 Wessex Archaeology, 2011, South Dorset Ridgeway Barrow Survey 2010 (Unpublished document).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

<8> National Record of the Historic Environment, 452336 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

May 17 2023 3:13PM