Monument record MDO2196 - Rainbarrows, Duddle Heath, Puddletown

A Bronze Age bowl barrow, one of a small group of three known as 'Rainbarrows'. In 1970 this monument was reported as being around 69 feet in diameter with a mound about 6 feet high, with traces of an encircling ditch.

Three barrows (25-27), 'Rainbarrows', lie on Duddle Heath at just over 300ft OD near the S end of a ridge overlooking the valley of the R Frome.

'B' - (26) Bowl (75359206), 100 yds SE of (25) is overgrown with bracken and scattered conifers. Diam 69ft ht 6ft. Traces of ditch. <3>

'B' SY 7352905. Bowl barrow, diameter 23.5m. height 2.2m. Ditch 3.0m. wide and 0.4m. deep visible on all sides. All barrows are covered with dense bushes and undergrowth. Re-surveyed at 1:2500 on M.S.D. <4>

Site of a Bronze Age bowl barrow. <5-6>

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1902 (Map). SWX1540.

(Centred SY 735920) Rainbarrows (Tumuli) (NR)

<2> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 129 (Monograph). SDO132.

<3> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 2, 231 (Monograph). SDO136.

'Of the thirty round barrows which occur in the parish, monuments (25–37) and monument (47) lie on the heathland of the Reading Beds; the others are on Chalk. The most northerly of the 'Rainbarrows' (25) is almost certainly the one which was opened by Cunnington (Cunnington MS. No. 27; Dorset Procs. XXXVII (1916), 43); a cremation lay 8 ft. down, under a central cairn 12 ft. in diameter and 4 ft. high. Two (? three) bucket urns containing cremations from the 'Rainbarrows' are in D.C.M. (Dorset Procs. XXIX (1908), 136; Ant. J. XIII (1933), 446; Arch. J. CXIX (1962), 65). A barrow formerly existed at 73469104, near Norris Mill, but it was almost entirely carted away in 1872, being composed of sand and gravel; of twelve urns which were found in the top of it, two survive in D.C.M. (Cunnington MS. No. 5; Dorset Procs. XXIX (1908), 140; B.A.P. II, figs. 424, 424a; Arch. J. CXIX (1962), 65).
Three barrows (25–27), 'Rainbarrows', lie on Duddle Heath at just over 300 ft. O.D., near the S. end of a ridge, overlooking the valley of the R. Frome. … (26) Bowl (73539206), 100 yds. S.E. of (25), is overgrown with bracken and scattered conifers. Diam. 69 ft., ht. 6 ft. Traces of ditch.'

<4> Barton, J G, Various, Field Investigators Comments JGB, F1 JGB 07-NOV-80 (Unpublished document). SDO11900.

<5> 15-FEB-2005, NMR SY 7392/3-5 (23748/10-12) (Aerial Photograph). SDO10755.

<6> Royal Air Force, 22-JAN-1948, RAF/CPE/UK/2431 4123-4 (Aerial Photograph). SDO10756.

<7> National Record of the Historic Environment, 455027 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Oct 9 2024 4:16PM