Monument record MDO2955 - Bowl barrow, one of the Culliford Tree Group, Whitcombe

A Bronze Age bowl barrow, part of a wider linear barrow cemetery. In 1970 this monument was reported as being around 100 feet in diameter with a mound about 12½ feet high, and an encircling ditch about 17 feet wide. It was described by the Ordnance Survey in 1979 as a mound 24 metres in diameter and 4.7 metres high, with no visible trace surviving of a surrounding ditch.

A Bronze Age bowl barrow, part of the Culliford Tree barow group, a linear group arranged along part of the Dorset Ridgeway. Listed by RCHME as Whitcombe 14 and by Grinsell as Whitcombe 4, it was described by the Ordnance Survey in 1979 as a mound 24 metres in diameter and 4.7 metres high, with no visible trace surviving of a surrounding ditch. Some years earlier, RCHME fieldwork had recorded a surrounding ditch circa 17 feet wide, apparently cutting the edge of the adjacent cropmark enclosure. <1-3>

Site of a Bronze Age bowl barrow, part of a wider linear barrow cemetery. <7-8>

<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.

'Eleven of the nineteen barrows are in the Culliford Tree Group (R.11), and four in a small Group (AB) on the N. slope from the Ridgeway. (R.11) Culliford Tree Group (SY 68 NE, 78 NW; Plate 209). Twenty-six round barrows, with a bank barrow (Broadmayne (19)), a long barrow (Whitcombe (5)) and a small D-shaped enclosure (Whitcombe (25)) closely associated, in the S. of Winterborne Came, Whitcombe and Broadmayne parishes, where they end some 470 ft. above O.D. on top of the Ridgeway. Included in the group are two probable bells, and three, possibly five, pond barrows. A W.-E. line of barrows from (9) to Broadmayne (24), including the bank barrow, is on the exact summit of the narrow but gently defined ridge. (7, 10) virtually share this position but all the others are off the exact summit, long barrow (5) being on a slope about 40 ft. below. Broadmayne (24–9) are on the crest of a spur falling gently N.E.
The bank barrow is earlier than Broadmayne (20), which lies over its W. end (cf. (8) on top of long barrow Whitcombe (5)). It is almost certainly earlier than (9–16), seemingly arranged to continue its alignment to the W. on the crest, and than Broadmayne (21–3), lying parallel to it on the N. edge of its ditch. Indeed the whole group appears to be related to the bank barrow, from which, also, barrows of Groups R.10, R.12, R. 13 and R.14 are clearly visible. This concentration of barrows in groups around the bank barrow appears to be the E. end of the Ridgeway Group: very few barrows, and certainly no comparable complex, exist along the Ridgeway to the E.
A D-shaped enclosure, now destroyed, lay adjacent to Whitcombe (13) and (14); it was perhaps earlier than (14) and may be directly associated with the barrow alignment (see Enclosures, Whitcombe (25)).
All of the barrows are damaged, particularly by ploughing and many are covered by trees or scrub; only one excavation, (9), is certainly located. … (14) Ditched bowl (70088538). Diam. about 100 ft., ht. 12½ ft., with ditch about 17 ft. wide probably cutting bank of enclosure (25) on N.W.'

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

<4> Papworth, M, 1983, The South Dorset Ridgeway Project: condition and management survey, SDR 594 (Index). SDO12304.

Diameter 24.0m, ht. 4.7m. Ditch ploughed out. Mound unploughed but covered in grass and hawthorn bushes. Damaged by basal ploughing particularly on the N side. Surrounding field in ley pasture. 1/2/C

<5> McOmish, D and Tuck, C, 2001, Broadmayne Bank Barrow, Dorset (Unpublished document). SDO16432.

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

<7> 22-APR-1954, NMR SY 7085/6-10 (Aerial Photograph). SDO10766.

<8> Royal Air Force, 04-NOV-1946, RAF/CPE/UK/1824 3284-6 (Aerial Photograph). SDO10765.

<9> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1338115 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jan 16 2025 7:09PM