Monument record MDO2886 - Bowl barrow on Frome Hill, West Stafford

Site of a Bronze Age bowl barrow visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs. It is part of a wider linear barrow cemetery located to the south-east of Mount Pleasant Henge. In 1970 this monument was described as around 55 feet in diameter with a mound 6 feet high, andirregular.

'A'. Bowl barrow. On Frome Hill above 200ft. Diameter about 55ft, height 6ft. Irregular. <1> <3>

'A' - SY 71508970. Bowl barrow, not ploughed. Diameter 16.0m, height 2.3m. Published surveys (1:2500) revised. <4>

Two bowl barrows situated on Frome Hill, 520 metres west of Frome Farm. The barrows stand about 18 metres apart, aligned north-west - south-east. The eastern barrow mound measures 16 metres in diameter and 1.8 metres high. The western barrow has been reduced in height by ploughing and now measures about 16 metres in diameter and 0.5 metres high. The quarry ditches which surround the barrows have become infilled over time but will survive as buried features, around 2 metres wide. Scheduled. <6>

Analysis of aerial photographs in 2004-5 failed to provide any new information about barrow 'A'. However, it did result in the identification of a ring ditch around Barrow B. In the latter case, the ring ditch was circa 32 metres in diameter, compared to the circa 16 metres diameter recorded for the mound. If a similar situation exists at Barrow A, then the ring ditch will be both outside the scheduled area and outside the area removed from cultivation. The lack of detail on Aps may be explained by the fact that this area of Frome Hill has been mapped by the British Geological Survey (sheet 328, 1966) as Wealden Clay, which would be less conducive to clear cropmark formation than the adjacent chalk, where several 'new' ring ditches were identified during the same AP survey. <8>

Site of a Bronze Age bowl barrow, approximately 18m in diameter, visible as an earthwork on aerial photographs.It is part of a wider linear barrow cemetery aligned north-west - south-east, located approximatly 300m south-east of Mount Pleasant henge (MDO2890) <11>. It lies within a polygonal fenced area and is protected from cultivation. No ring ditch has been identified as a cropmark on available photographs, although one might be expected, especially given the presence of ones around its near-neighbours. If this barrow does possess a surrounding ring ditch, it may well lie close to or outside the boundary of the scheduled/unploughed area <7-8>.

<1> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 140 (Monograph). SDO132.

<2> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1963 (Map). SWX1540.

<3> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 451 (Monograph). SDO150.

‘(20) Bowl (SY 78 NW; 71518970). On Frome Hill above 200 ft. Diam. about 55 ft., ht. 6 ft. Irregular.’

<4> Barton, J G, Various, Field Investigators Comments JGB, F1 JGB 21-NOV-79 (Unpublished document). SDO11900.

<5> Papworth, M, 1983, The South Dorset Ridgeway Project: condition and management survey, SDR 569 (Index). SDO12304.

Situated in a ploughed field but the mound itself is unploughed and protected by marker posts. Covered in established grass. 1/2/C

<6> English Heritage, Scheduled Monument Notification, 10-OCT-2000 (Scheduling record). SDO17381.

<7> Barber, M, 2005, Mount Pleasant 2005 plot (Cartographic materials). SDO10978.

<8> Barber, M, 2008, Mount Pleasant Draft Archive Report 2008 (Unpublished document). SDO10981.

<9> Barber, Martyn, 2014, Mount Pleasant, Dorset. A Survey of the Neolithic 'Henge Enclosure' and Associated Features (Monograph). SDO14409.

<10> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/093 RCHME Inventory: Dorset II (South-East) (Unpublished document). SDO17434.

<11> Royal Air Force, 17-APR-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/2018 4012-14 (Aerial Photograph). SDO10921.

<12> National Record of the Historic Environment, 453975 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jan 16 2025 6:59PM