Monument record MDO2981 - Barrow on Hardown Hill, Whitchurch Canonicorum

Disc barrow consisting of a mound 28 feet in diameter and about one foot high, with a slight encircling bank and ditch , the former 57 feet in diam. May have been incorporated into the remains of formal garden.

One of this group of mounds was excavated and contained several pagan Saxon burials. Grave goods included ten spearheads, an axe head, tanged knife, shield boss and a bronze brooch.

Probably this barrow contained several pagan Saxon burials. Grave goods are said to have included ten spearheads, an axe head, tanged knife, shield boss and bronze broach. (Grinsell)

National Record of the Historic Environment, 450197 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Grinsell, L V, 1982, Dorset Barrows Supplement, Whitchurch Canonicorum 6b (Monograph). SWX1703.

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1932, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1931, 247-250 (Serial). SDO35.

An Anglo-Saxon Burial on Hardown Hill.
Notes supplied by Dr. Wyatt Wingrave, read 8th December, 1931.
ANGLO Saxon objects of the Pagan period are extremely rare in Dorset. A few were found, over a century ago, by Sir R. Colt Hoare in Cranborne Chase; but otherwise the County has failed to produce anything that can be attributed to the times of the long-drawn-out-wars which resulted in Britain becoming England, and our County a part of the Kingdom of Wessex.

The Site. Above the village of Morecombelake, and chiefly in the parish of Whitchurch Canonicorum, the flat-topped Hardown Hill rises to a height of 661 feet above the sea. It is shaped more or less like a horse-shoe and is drained by several small streams; to the east they join to form the little River Winniford; to the north and west they feed the Char; and to the south is the little brook which falls into the sea between Golden Cap and the southern spurs of Chardown.

Hardown is capped with gravel, and pits have bitten deeply into the edge of the plateau. Fortunately these diggings have not encroached too far on the hill-top; for, here, midway between Morecombelake and Ryall is a group of low barrows, some of which have a depression in the in the top.

Local tradition associates these tumuli with rifle pits made during the Napoleonic wars and the invasion then threatened; but this is unsupported by evidence, and, indeed, one has only to ensconce oneself in the position of the imaginary rifleman, to see the absurdity of this statement.

In the neighbourhood of the barrows, worn paths and uneven ground suggest ancient settlement.

The Excavation. In 1916, whilst Dr. Wingrave was living on the South-West spur of the hill, a boy brought to him a piece of iron, which he had found in one of the barrows whilst rabbiting; the piece of iron was a spear-head. Dr. Wingrave at once visited the site. The barrow had a depression in the top which may have been formed by the collapse of an internal burial cist, and was much burrowed into by rabbits.

On digging, he found a second spear-head, about a foot below the surface amongst loosed chert fragments and flints. Below these, the rest of the objects were found in loose blackened soil. There were no remains of bones, burnt or otherwise. There is no doubt that the objects accompanied a burial by inhumation; but the acidity of the gravel soil had destroyed all vestiges of bone. Had the interment been after cremation, fragments of calcined bone would have been found, as these are practically indestructible.

Objects discovered.
Axehead. Curiosly enough, this form is not that of the early Anglo-Saxon axe. It is far more like the Roman woodcutter’s axe. Perhaps it was part of the spoils of the conqueror converted to warlike uses.
Spearheads. The ten examples fall into three groups:- (a) Broad-bladed, of which there are 2. (b) Narrow-bladed, of which there are 6. (c) Pike-headed [Footnote: See British Museum Anglo-Saxon Guide, (1923), p.90)], of which there is 1. The remaining one, a fragment of a socket, may belong to group (b) or (c). All have the typical split socket; two of them still retain the pin which fixed them to the shaft, whilst in the socket of several may be seen the remains of the wooden shaft.
Knife. Tanged, single-edged. The shape is typical.
Shield-boss. The boss, or umbo, was placed in the centre of a round (or sometimes oval) shield of wood, strengthened with iron bands, and perhaps leather covered. It afforded space and protection to the hand of the user.
Brooch. Bronze. Square head, pierced with one (originally two) holes, one side broken away. The bow, plain. The tongue has two raided bands and slightly thickened tip. Underneath the head is a projecting ring in which is iron rust, the vestiges of the vanished spring coil and pin. There is no sign of a catch-plate, although the brooch must have had one to be effective.
Perforated flint. Flint pebble, with natural perforation. This may have been used as an amulate.

With these objects [Footnote: Dr. Wyatt Wingrave, very kindly gave permission for these objects to be brought from the Lyme Regis Museum, where they are deposited, to be exhibited at this meeting of the Dorset Archaeological Society, for which permission, and for providing the notes on which this account is based, the hearty thanks of the Society are due.] was shown another iron axe-head, found in 1920, when a pond was being cleaned out in Whitchurch Canonicorum. It is probably also Anglo-Saxon, but of the T-pattern, an arm of the T having rusted away.’

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments England, 1952, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume I (West), 265 (Monograph). SDO97.

‘(19) BARROWS, on Hardown Hill ¾ m. S.E. of the church, are nine in number:—(a) a disc barrow consisting of a mound 28 ft. in diam. and about 1 ft. high with a slight encircling bank and ditch, the former 57 ft. in diam. Symmetrically disposed around it are four barrows … In 1916 one of these barrows was excavated and found to contain a pagan Saxon burial. The objects found included an umbo, axe-heads, spear-heads and a hammer-headed brooch, all now on loan to the Dorset County Museum. (Proc. Dorset Nat. Hist. and Arch. Soc., LIII, 247–250.)’

<3> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows (Monograph). SDO132.

<4> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1978, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1976, 62 (Serial). SDO76.

'WHITECHURCH CANONICORUM (SY 405905). The Dorset Institute of Higher Education is in the process of planning the barrows and circular feature on Hardown Hill as previous records are inaccurate. (A. M. Hunt).'

Record last edited

Dec 24 2022 7:15AM