Monument record MDO20910 - Mount Pleasant: bowl barrow

A Bronze Age round barrow recorded as a ring ditch on aerial photographs. One of a cluster of ring ditches located east and southeast of the Mount Pleasant henge enclosure, it was first photographed in the 1930s.It is part of a wider linear barrow cemetery located to the south-east of Mount Pleasant.

Ring ditch, approximately 23m in diameter, visible as a cropmark on aerial photographs. It is probably the site of a Bronze Age bowl barrow and appears to be part of a wider linear barrow cemetery aligned north-west - south-east, located approximatly 150m south-east of Mount Pleasant henge (MDO2890). <1-2>

A ring ditch located to the east of the Mount Pleasant henge enclosure, one of several recorded for the first time during analysis of aerial photographs in 2004-5. Following the simple nomenclature used int he RCHME inventory and existing monument records, the barrow is designated 'F'.

Located at SY 71298984, it measures circa 20.5 metres in maximum internal diameter and lies just 14 metres north of barrow 'E' and 130 metres east-southeast of the henge's eastern entrance. Both 'E' and 'F' were mapped from photographs taken by Francesca Radcliffe in 1996. However, 'F' is faintly visible on an oblique in the NMR's Crawford Collection taken sometime between 1933 and 1939. It can also be seen faintly on APs taken on a number of subsequent occasions.

In 1986, a new water pipeline was installed across the field containing the southern half of the Mount Pleasant henge enclosure. The chosen route seems intended to pass as close to the henge's scheduled area as possible, in order presumably to minimise the length of pipe needed. Prior to the pipeline being laid, an easement area 10 metres wide was surveyed by intensive fieldwalking. This easement area was then stripped of topsoil prior to pipe-laying, providing an opportunity for archaeological features to be recorded in plan and, where necessary, by excavation. It seems clear from the aerial photographs and the fieldwork report that this pipeline crossed ring ditch 'F'. However, the ring ditch itself appears not to have been noted. The report of the 1986 fieldwork notes a small collection of lithic finds including a flint scraper and a broken transverse arrowhead of chert from the approximate location of the ring ditch. Some features apparently associated with burning were also noted in the general area, but do not seem to have been excavated. <1-6>

<1> 01-JAN-1936, NMR SY 7189/1 ACA 7275/ORACLEF5 (Aerial Photograph). SDO20280.

<2> Radcliffe, F M, Oblique aerial photographs, FR 198/29 05-AUG-1996 (Aerial Photograph). SDO13178.

<3> Woodward, P J, 1986, Observations along the Wessex Water Authority supply pipe: Alington Avenue and Mount Pleasant (Article in serial). SDO9671.

<4> Barber, M, 2005, Mount Pleasant 2005 plot (Cartographic materials). SDO10978.

<5> Barber, M, 2008, Mount Pleasant Draft Archive Report 2008 (Unpublished document). SDO10981.

<6> Barber, Martyn, 2014, Mount Pleasant, Dorset. A Survey of the Neolithic 'Henge Enclosure' and Associated Features (Monograph). SDO14409.

<7> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1494175 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jan 16 2025 6:59PM