Monument record MDO2987 - Bowl barrow on Hardown Hill, Whitchurch Canonicorum

One of a group of nine bowl barrows on Hardown Hill. In 1952 this monument was reported as being around 13 feet in diameter and 3 feet high. The mound is visible as earthworks on aerial photographs and was digitally plotted during the Marshwood Vale NMP.

A Bronze Age barrow, part of a barrow group of five bowl barrows situated on Hardown Hill 600 metres to the west of Butt Farm. It is one of four bowl barrows situated in a curved line aligned north-south on the edge of the hill to the east of the fifth bowl barrow. The barrow is listed as Whitchurch Canonicorum 2 by Grinsell (1959) and Barrow H by the Ordnance Survey and RCHME (1952). The barrow survives as a heather-covered earthwork about 9.4 metres in diameter and 0.9 metres high. It is ditchless and the mound has a central hollow.Excavation of one of barrows within this group was carried out by Dr Wyatt Wingrave in 1916. The barrow contained a minimum of four or five male and one female burial, dating from the mid 5th to mid 6th century. The exact provenance of these secondary Saxon burials is uncertain as all the barrow mounds show varying evidence of excavation. However Barrow A (HOB 450197) seems the most likely location because of the size of the depression cut into it.

One of nine barrows on Hardown Hill. Barrow 'H': A bowl barrow 31 feet diameter by 3 feet high. One of the barrows was excavated 1916 by Dr Wyatt Wingrave, who found it to contain a pagan Saxon burial with grave-goods consisting of nine spearheads with split sockets, part of a socket, a tanged knife, a shield-boss, a bronze brooch and a perforated flint pebble. All these objects are on loan to Dorset County Museum.

Dr Wingrave assumed that the burial had been an inhumation in which the acidity of the soil had destroyed all vestiges of bone. Had it been a cremation, fragments of calcined bone would have survived. <1-2>

Barrow H: A heather-covered bowl barrow about 9.4 metres in diameter and 0.9 metres high. It is ditchless and the mound has a central hollow. <3>

Whitchurch Canonicorum 2. A bowl barrow, one of a group on Hardown Hill. It measures 12 paces in diameter and 3 1/2 feet high. One of the barrows within this group was excavated by Dr Wyatt Wingrave and found to contain a Anglo-Saxon inhumation and grave goods. The range of grave goods indicate the possibly of a small Saxon cemetery inserted into a Bronze Age barrow. <4>

The exact provenance of the Saxon finds is uncertain. They could have come from Barrow A (HOB uid 450197) presuming that this was pre-Saxon, or from Barrow F (HOB uid 1456690) or Barrow H, both of which have been dug at the centre and side. The size of the latter and their arrangement with Barrow J (HOB uid 1456691) in a line on the shoulder of the hill are compatible with Bronze Age origins, allowing the possibility of Saxon secondary burial.

Mounds G (HOB uid 1456692) and J (HOB uid 1456691) have not been dug into, and mounds B,C,D and E (HOB uid 450197) are too small to agree with the details of the 1916 excavation. <5>

The Saxon finds, dated mid 5th to mid 6th century, have been described (6) as coming from a primary inhumation burial in a barrow, but the items found suggest a minimum of four or five male graves and one female burial. <7>

SY 407945. Group of eight roundbarrows on Hardown Hill. Scheduled. <8>

A bowl barrow, part of a barrow cemetery comprising five bowl barrows located on Hardon Hill, 600 metres west of Butt Farm. It is one of four barrows situated in a curved line aligned north-south on the edge of the hill to the east of the fifth bowl barrow. These barrows vary between 9 metres and 13 metres in diameter, and between 0.6 metres and one metre in height. One of the five barrows was excavated in 1916 by Dr Wynyatt Wingrave in 1916 who found secondary Saxon inhumation (as stated by previous authorities above). The exact provence of these finds is uncertain as most of the barrows have evidence of excavation, however, the larger bowl barrow (Barrow A, HOB uid 450197) seems the most likely location because of the size of the depression cut into the mound. <9>

Extensive correspondence on the Hardown Hill barrows, descriptions and plans. <10>

The mound is visible as earthworks on aerial photographs <11> and was digitally plotted during the Marshwood Vale NMP. The barrow is 7.5m across and appears to have a small central hollow, possibly the site of an excavation or robber pit. It is one four barrows situated in a curved line aligned north-south on the eastern edge of Hardown Hill.

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

<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:— ... (h and i) are to the N. and lined with (f) at about 17 yards interval; (h) is a bowl barrow 31 ft. in diam. and 3 ft. high … 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> Swatridge, G C, Various, Field Investigators Comments GCS, F1 GCS 18-FEB-1955 (Unpublished document). SWX1169.

<4> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 142 (Monograph). SDO132.

<5> Meaney, A L, 1964, A Gazetteer of Early Anglo-Saxon burial sites, 81 (Bibliographic reference). SWX4310.

<6> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1968 (Map). SWX1540.

Barrow H; SY 40569449. Tumuli

<7> Evison, V T, 1969, The Anglo-Saxon finds from Hardown Hill. Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society 90, 232-240, 232-240 (Article in serial). SDO14057.

<8> Department of the Environment, 1978, Department of the Environment (IAM) Ancient Monuments of England (Vol 2), 71 (Monograph). SWX1687.

<9> Historic England, Scheduled Monument Notification, 22-Dec-97 (Scheduling record). SDO17468.

<10> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Unpublished revision RCHME Dorset I (West) Undated (Whitchurch Canonicorum file) (Unpublished document). SDO19065.

<11> Royal Air Force, 22-JAN-1948, RAF/CPE/UK/2431 RP 3175-6 (Aerial Photograph). SDO14698.

<12> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/088 RCHME Inventory: Dorset I (West) and Revision (Unpublished document). SDO17367.

<13> Historic England, Historic England Archive, 883001 (Index). SDO14738.

RCHME: Barrows on Hardown Hill, Whitchurch Canonicorum, Dorset

<14> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1456688 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jan 12 2024 1:41PM