Monument record MDO2049 - Round barrow, possibly a bell barrow, one of the Ridge Hill Group, Portesham

Bronze Age round barrow, a large bowl barrow or possibly a bell barrow, one of two round barrows located here. In 1970 this monument was reported as being around 62 feet in diameter with a mound about 10½ feet high. Visible as a circular earthwork mound on aerial photographs.

Two round barrows: 'B'. bowl barrow <1> or possibly a bell barrow <3> diameter 62 feet, height 10 ½ feet.

'B' SY 64598667. Bowl barrow, diameter 18.5m., height. Neither barrow has a visible ditch, nor a berm from present appearance. Both are in arable but not ploughed. Re-surveyed at 1:2500 on M.S.D. <4>

Also visible as a circular earthwork mound on aerial photographs <6-9> measuring approximately 18.3 metres in diameter. This site was digitally plotted during the South Dorset Ridgeway Mapping Project.

Royal Air Force, 04-NOV-1946, RAF/CPE/UK/1821 1064 (Aerial Photograph). SDO20715.

Papworth, M, 1983, The South Dorset Ridgeway Project: condition and management survey (Index). SDO12304.

‘Measurements – diam. 18.5m + ht. 3.3m. RCHM does not explain why it considers this barrow to be a bell. Perimeter steepened by basal ploughing particularly on the W and N. On the E side recent ploughing has exposed a lens of black soil with charcoal in the steepened base of the mound. Mound covered in established grass. 1/3/C.’

<1> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 127 (Monograph). SDO132.

<2> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1963 (Map). SWX1540.

('A' - SY 64558668; 'B' SY 64598667) Tumuli (NR)

<3> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 467 (Monograph). SDO150.

‘(42) Bell (?) (64598668) 45 yds. E.S.E. of (41). Diam. 62 ft., ht. 10½ ft.’

<4> Rigg, J, Field Investigators Comments JR, F1 JGB 06-MAY-80 (Unpublished document). SWX1255.

<5> Wessex Archaeology, 2011, South Dorset Ridgeway Barrow Survey 2010 (Unpublished document). SDO12407.

<6> Royal Air Force, 22-1-1948, RAF/CPE/UK/2431 3295-6 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11932.

<7> Royal Air Force, 17-1-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1934 1063-5 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11906.

<8> Royal Air Force, 04-NOV-1946, RAF/CPE/UK/1824 3293-5 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11893.

<9> 26-3-1968, NMR SY6486/1 (178) (Aerial Photograph). SDO11936.

<10> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/088 RCHME Inventory: Dorset I (West) and Revision (Unpublished document). SDO17367.

<11> National Record of the Historic Environment, 452430 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jun 27 2024 10:25AM