Monument record MDO2182 - Bowl barrow, Poyntington

A Bronze Age bowl barrow. The monument was visited in 1962 by Leslie Grinsell, who recorded it as being around 18 paces in diameter with a mound about 6 feet high. He subsequently noted (Grinsell, 1982) that the mound had been bulldozed around 1976.

The NE extremity of Poyntington Down is cut by a steep sided valley extending through plan ST 6421 in a NW-SE direction. On the SW side between ST 642215 and ST 643213 four mounds extend directly down the valley side from the crest of the arable plateau. They average 30.0m long, 12.0m wide and 0.5m high, side ditches being represented by darker grass. There are uncertain traces of two further mounds 100.0m to the SE. Along the lip of the opposite, NW side of the valley between ST 644216 and ST 646213 are six ditchless circular mounds from 8.0m to 16.0m in diameter. They average 0.3m high on the upper side (adjacent to the rig and furrow which can be seen on APs of the plateau)
to 2.0m high on the lower side, usually partly down the valley slope. All are of earth and small stone construction. With this group is one mound 25.0m long, 8.0m wide and 0.4m high which extends well down the slope. Additionally near the valley bottom are two more circular mounds each about 1.7m high on the lower side. It seems certain that the long mounds are pillow mounds and
probable that the circular ones fall into the same category.
Surveyed at 1:2500. (1)

Six of these are listed as being bowl barrows:

ST 6434 2167 Pasture, slight hollow in centre.
ST 6441 2166 Pasture, stony.
ST 6444 2161 Pasture, hollow in centre.
ST 6445 2159 Pasture, hollow in centre.
ST 6455 2146 Pasture, hollow in centre.
ST 6463 2131 Bulldozed ca 1976 when 4 sherds of coarse brown urn were found on an exposed area by Rodney Legg. All were visited by Grinsell on 21/Oct/1962. (2)

<1> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/088 RCHME Inventory: Dorset I (West) and Revision, RCH01/088 (Unpublished document). SDO17367.

RCHME Inventory: Dorset I (West) and Revision A collection of archive relating to the Dorset inventory Volume I (West Dorset) and to a proposed revision which was never published. The archive consists of a wide range of material including original field notes, surveys, profiles, photographs and negatives, measured drawings, and correspondence.

<2> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, F1 NVQ 06-JUN-75 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<3> Grinsell, L V, 1982, Dorset Barrows Supplement, 48 (Monograph). SWX1703.

'6 Poyntington Down ST 64632131 [Diam] 18 [Height] 6 LVG, 21 Oct. 1962: pasture; bulldozed c. 1976, when 4 sherds of coarse brown urn found on exposed area by Rodney Legg. Plottings of 1-6 by NVQ for OS Arch., Nov. 1962.'

<4> National Record of the Historic Environment, 199889 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Mar 24 2022 10:37AM