Monument record MDO248 - Bell barrow, one of the Ridge Hill Group, Bincombe

Bronze Age bell barrow, part of an extensive linear barrow cemetery running along the ridgeway. In 1972 this monument was reported as around 45 feet in diameter with a mound about 2½ feet high, and surrounded by a ditch around 80 feet in diameter. This barrow was opened in August 1884 by antiquarian Edward Cunnington, who found an inhumation burial in the form of a stone cist containing bones. Visible as a cropmark of two concentric ring-ditches on aerial photographs. The site was digitally plotted during the South Dorset Ridgeway Mapping Project.

Covered by small slabs, fragments of an inhumation in a stone-lined grave covered by a cairn. (Cunnington Ms. 32 (Ridgeway 4)). <1>

This barrow was 15 paces in diameter and 1 foot in height. <2>

Round barrows on Ridgeway Hill: 'C' Bell (?) (66428660) 45 yds. E of 'B'. Diam. About 45 ft., ht. 2½ ft., apparently surrounded by ditch about 80 ft. in diam. Visible on V.A.P. CPE/UK 1934, 1061. Now ploughed out. Contained an incomplete primary inhumation in cist under flint layer. <4>

C SY 66428659. Bell (?) barrow, diameter 15.0m, height 0.5m. No visible berm. D SY 66468661. Bowl barrow, diameter 18.0m, height 0.3m. All these barrows are in arable and have been ploughed. None has a visible ditch. Re-surveyed at 1:2500 on MSD. <5>

Visible on aerial photographs <8> as two concentric ring ditches with adjacent internal banks and a central pit/ hollow. The site was digitally plotted during the South Dorset Ridgeway Project.

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1916, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club for 1916, 40-47 (Serial). SDO25.

<2> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 92 (Monograph). SDO132.

<3> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1963 (Map). SWX1540.

(Centred SY 665865) Tumuli (NR)

<4> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 468 (Monograph). SDO150.

‘(15) Bell (?) (66428660) 45 yds. E. of (14). Diam. about 45 ft., ht. 2½ ft., apparently surrounded by ditch about 80 ft. in diam. visible on V.A.P. CPE/UK 1934: 1061. Now ploughed out. Contained an incomplete primary inhumation in cist under flint layer.’

<5> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, F1 JGB 21-MAY-80 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<6> Papworth, M, 1983, The South Dorset Ridgeway Project: condition and management survey, SDR 400 (Index). SDO12304.

15.0m diameter, Ht. 0.5m. Field planted. Barrow regularly ploughed. 1/3/C

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

<8> 07-AUG-1995, NMR SY6686/7 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11845.

<9> National Record of the Historic Environment, 452011 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jan 22 2025 12:49PM