Monument record MDO3031 - Disc Barrow, one of the Came Down Group, Winterborne Came

Disc Barrow with oval central mound, on Came Down Golf Course. Well preserved. Visible on aerial photographs {1} as a single-banked ring 36m in diameter. Digtally plotted for the South Dorset Ridgeway Mapping Project.

'C' A ditched bowl barrow, according to Grinsell 30 paces diameter by 3 feet high, with a large hole in the centre. <1>

R.C.H.M. list it as an enclosure or "ring-work," possibly a type of pond barrow or henge, and describe it as a depression 41 feet in diameter by 2 feet deep, surrounded by a bank 25 feet wide and 1 3/4 feet high, broken on the south-east by a possibly original entrance 15 feet wide. The shallow external ditch, 22 feet to 28 feet wide, has recently been filled on the east side with soil from Dorchester containing Roman and later material. <2> <4>

'C' SY 68708621. The feature is 36.0m. In overall diameter and consists of a near-circular bank 10.5m. Maximum width and 1.2m. Maximum outer height and 0.8m. Maximum inner height, with an outer ditch 2.0., wide and 0.2m. Deep. The bank encloses a central depression of uneven surface. The feature as a whole resembles a much-robbed ditched bowl barrow, rather than a pondbarrow or henge. Re-surveyed at 1:2500 on M.S.D. See ground photographs. <5>

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

<2> Royal Air Force, 17-JAN-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1934 1057-9 (Aerial Photograph). SDO12018.

<3> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1963 (Map). SWX1540.

('A' - SY 68648617; 'B' - SY 68678620; 'C' SY 68718621; 'D' - SY 68718626; 'E' - SY 68678628; 'F' - SY 68778623, 'G' - SY 68818625; 'H' - SY 68868634) Tumuli (NR)

<4> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 464 (Monograph). SDO150.

<5> Barton, J G, Various, Field Investigators Comments JGB, F1 JGB 11-JAN-80 (Unpublished document). SDO11900.

<6> Papworth, M, 1983, The South Dorset Ridgeway Project: condition and management survey, SDR 499 (Index). SDO12304.

Overall diameter 47.0m. Outer bank 6.0m wide and 0.4m max. ht. with a ditch 4.0 wide and 0.2m deep visible on the south and SW only. Central tump 11.0m by 8.0m. Grass covered, management restricted to mowing and spraying. 1/2/B

<7> Wessex Archaeology, 2011, South Dorset Ridgeway Barrow Survey 2010 (Unpublished document). SDO12407.

<8> National Record of the Historic Environment, 452105 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Mar 8 2024 8:03PM