Monument record MDO280 - Row Barrow, one of the Bincombe Hill Group, Bincombe

A Bronze Age bowl barrow. In 1972 this monument was reported as a mound around 100 feet in diameter and 12½ feet high with surrounding ditch 10 feet wide and 1 foot deep. It is visible as earthworks on aerial photographs.

Grinsell recorded this barrow as 40 paces in diameter and 10 feet in height, and described the ditch as very fine. <1>

Group of round barrows on Bincombe Hill: (C) Bell (68948464) 68 yds. north west of (B) Diam. 92 ft. ht. 11 ft. Ditch 15 ft. wide and 2 ft. deep destroyed by ?ancient ploughing on south east. The sloping berm, 9 ft. wide on south and west, has been partly destroyed. Excavation hollow in centre.

Warne's No 43 was probably the largest mound of the triple barrow 'A' and hit No 6 was almost certainly one of the others near it. <2>

'C' SY 68938463. Bell barrow: overall diameter 42.0m, diameter of mound 27.0m and height 3.7m. The berm is apparent only on the NW side, and the ditch, 0.6m deep, also only on that side. Excavation hollow and trench running to NE.

Barrows A, B, C and D are in pasture and have been ploughed. Re-surveyed at 1:2500 on MSD. <4>

This group of barrows is probably part of those excavated by the Rev J J Smith in 1842. <6>

The site of a Bronze Age bowl barrow is visible as earthworks on aerial photographs <8-9>. A large robber pit is visible cutting in from the south-east side. The site, which forms part of a larger linear barrow cemetery, was digitally plotted during the South Dorset Ridgeway Mapping Project.

<1> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 91 (Monograph). SDO132.

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 439 (Monograph). SDO150.

‘(47) Ditched bowl (68918466) 48 yds. N.W. of (46). Diam. 100 ft., ht. 12½ ft. Ditch 10 ft. wide and 1 ft. deep.’

<3> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey 1:10,000 scale map, 1978 (Map). SDO17396.

(Centred SY 690845) Tumuli [NR]

<4> Barton, J G, Various, Field Investigators Comments JGB, F1 JGB 04-JUL-80 (Unpublished document). SDO11900.

<5> Papworth, M, 1983, The South Dorset Ridgeway Project: condition and management survey, SDR 512 (Index). SDO12304.

Diameter 39.0m. Mound 31.5m, ht. 3.5m. Ditch visible on the SE and S only. Permanent pasture. 1/2/A

<6> Fitzgerald, R J, RCHME Fieldworker's Comments RJF, R1 RJF 08-OCT-1991 (Unpublished document). SWX2638.

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

<8> Royal Air Force, 04-NOV-1946, RAF/CPE/UK/1824 3242 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11964.

<9> 06-DEC-2006, NMR SY6984/14-17 (24498/35-41) (Aerial Photograph). SDO11965.

<10> National Record of the Historic Environment, 452697 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jan 16 2025 6:38PM