Monument record MDO2951 - Bowl barrow, one of the Culliford Tree Group, Whitcombe

A Bronze Age bowl barrow, part of the Culliford Tree barrow group, a linear group of barrows ranged along part of the Dorset Ridgeway. In 1979 the Ordnance Survey recorded it as a damaged mound measuring around 23.5 metres by 20 metres across and 3.5 metres high. The surrounding ditch, 0.7 metres wide, was visible on the northwest side only. This is possibly one of two barrows in the group in which skeletons, probably representing secondary burials, were found in about 1860.

A Bronze Age bowl barrow, part of the Culliford Tree barrow group, a linear group of barrows ranged along part of the Dorset Ridgeway. Listed by RCHME as Whitcombe 10 and by Grinsell as Whitcombe 1a, it was recorded by the Ordnance Survey in 1979 as a damaged mound measuring circa 23.5 metres by 20 metres across and 3.5 metres high. The surrounding ditch, 0.7 metres wide, was visible on the northwest side only. In circa 1860, Captain Damer of Came House apparently dug "a little into the tops" of two of the barrows near Culliford Tree, finding skeletons. RCHME suggest that this may be one of the barrows, although this is clearly speculative. The account of the digging, although brief, suggests strongly that the skeletons recovered were intrusive secondary burials. Damer was also responsible for incomplete excavations on the Culliford Tree barrow itself (SY 68 NE 180). Again, skeletons were found there at a relatively shallow depth, and are likely to be of Anglo-Saxon date. <1-4>

<1> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 143 (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, 459 (Monograph). SDO150.

‘(10) Bowl (69958552) 70 yds. N.E. of (9). Diam. 68 ft., ht. 7½ ft. Possibly one of two which yielded skeletons (G. Dugdale, William Barnes of Dorset (1953), 167).’

<3> Barton, J G, Various, Field Investigators Comments JGB, F1 JGB 16-NOV-1979 (Unpublished document). SDO11900.

<4> Grinsell, L V, 1982, Dorset Barrows Supplement, 53 (Monograph). SWX1703.

<5> Papworth, M, 1983, The South Dorset Ridgeway Project: condition and management survey, SDR 589 (Index). SDO12304.

Diameter 23.5m x 20.0m, ht. 3.5m. Ditch 0.7m visible on the NW side (1980). Covered in trees. Large pit with rubbish to the S of the mound. Ditch not visible by 1983. Cultivated land surrounding barrow. 7/3/C

<6> Wessex Archaeology, 2011, South Dorset Ridgeway Barrow Survey 2010 (Unpublished document). SDO12407.

<7> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1338180 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jun 16 2023 4:16PM