Monument record MDO2656 - Bowl barrow on Thorncombe Beacon, Symondsbury

Bowl barrow, one of a group of three. The barrow mound is 33 metres in diameter and 3.7 metres high. It is surrounded by a quarry ditch which has become infilled but survives as a buried feature approximately 3 metres wide. The barrow mound is visible as earthworks on lidar.

180 yds N of the summit of Thorncombe Beacon - bowl barrow 106ft. diameter. 13ft. high, disturbed on S. side. <2>

A grass covered, ditchless bowl barrow. Diameter 33.0m height 4.0m taken to the west. Mutilated by cattle. <3>

SY 43609162. Bowl barrow north of Thorncombe Beacon, 36 paces diameter by 12 feet high. Could be natural. <4>

The barrow mound is visible as earthworks on lidar <6> and was digitally plotted during the South West Coastal Zone Assessment Survey (Dorset).

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1931 (Map). SWX1540.

TUMULUS [OE]

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments England, 1952, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume I (West), 239 (Monograph). SDO97.

b and d (27) Barrows, near Thorncombe Beacon, are three in number:—(a), 180 yards N. of the summit of the beacon, is a bowl barrow 106 ft. in diameter and 13 ft. high. It has been disturbed on the S. side; (b), 230 yards N.E. of (a), is a bowl barrow 82 ft. in diameter and 3½ to 4 ft. high; (c), 280 yards N.N.E. of (a), is a bowl barrow about 75 ft. in diameter and 4 ft. high. 350 yards E.S.E. of the summit of the beacon is a mound, apparently a "pillow mound", approximately 93 ft. by 16½ ft. and 1½ ft. high with traces of a surrounding ditch.

<3> Swatridge, G C, Various, Field Investigators Comments GCS, 17/02/1955 (Unpublished document). SWX1169.

<4> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 133 (Monograph). SDO132.

<5> DCMS, 1997, Scheduled Monument Notification 1997, 25/09/1997 (Scheduling record). SDO17426.

<6> Channel Coastal Observatory, 23-MAR-2008, Lidar (Photograph). SDO12878.

<7> National Record of the Historic Environment, 450218 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Oct 7 2024 2:36PM