Monument record MDO3096 - Bell barrow, one of the Lanceborough Group, Winterborne Monkton

Bell barrow 29m in diameter comprising outer ditch with possible entrance in SE edge, and central pit/ hollow 14m in diameter. Visible as a cropmark on aerial photographs. The site was digitally plotted during the South Dorset Ridgeway Mapping Project.

'B' & 'D' Two bell barrows. 'B' The largest bell barrow in Dorset and probably in Wessex. The mound is 150 ft diam, 18 ft height surroundedby berm 20 ft wide and a ditch 35 ft wide and 3 ft deep. An intrusive Ro inhumation in a sarcophagus was found near the top. Cunnington's No17. <3>

In a low barrow in the common fields [Fordington Fields] about 1.5 miles SW of Dorchester, are MBA biconical urn containing burnt bones was found in a cist cut into the native chalk [probably applies to one of these barrows]. <1> <3>

'B'. A grass covered bell barrow; diameter of the mound 63.0m, including a berm 7.0m wide. The height of the barrow is 5.0m, and the surrounding ditch is 8.0m wide and 0.8m deep. <4>

Lanceborough Group. Four barrows including two bells and a possible bell, with a long barrow (SY 68 NE 93) and a horseshoe-shaped enclosure (SY 68 NE 94) lie on a local downland crest about 300 ft above OD some 700 yards N of the W end of the Maiden Castle 'long mound' (SY 68 NE 90). The adjacent open field furlong was called Lanceborough or Great Barrow Furlong (Tithe Map 1844), a name probably referring to 'C' the largest bell barrow in the area. All the barrows have been damaged, mostly by ploughing.

Winterborne Monkton: 'B' (5) Bell, possible (665538924), 110 yards SSE of last. Diameter about 75 ft with berm about 15 ft wide and ditch 10 ft to 12 ft wide; on E, ditch almost touches SW end of ditch of long barrow (4). Ploughed flat, visible as soil-
mark. <6-7>

'B' Ploughed out. <8>

A bell barrow, part of a cluster of monuments located a short distance north of Maiden Castle (see associated monument records). The barrow is listed by RCHME as Winterborne Monkton 5 and by Grinsell as Winterborne Monkton 3. It is located just southwest of the southern end of the long barrow SY 68 NE 93, its ditch almost touching that of the long barrow. In 1980 the Ordnance Survey recorded that it had been ploughed flat. In 1955, they had recorded it as a "grass covered bell barrow, diameter of mound 30.0 metres, including a berm 4.0 metres wide. The ditch is very mutilated and unsurveyable". RCHME had previously measured the diameter of the mound at 75 feet, surrounded by a berm 15 feet wide and a ditch up to 12 feet wide. It had already been ploughed flat by then. More recently, the latest amendment to the scheduling details records the site as a cropmark, and describes the barrow as having a central mound 3.5 metres in diameter, surrounded by a berm 4.5 metres wide and an outer ditch 3.5 metres wide. This barrow was formerly recorded as part of SY 68 NE 26. That record should be consulted for additional sources and information [note that there was periodic confusion among Ordnance Survey field staff over the identification of the various barrows in the group. This barrow was at times confused with the bell barrow SY 68 NE 156]. <11>

Bell barrow 29m in diameter comprising outer ditch with possible entrance in SE edge, and central pit/ hollow 14m in diameter. Visible as a cropmark on aerial photographs <12>. The site was digitally plotted during the South Dorset Ridgeway Mapping Project.

<1> Warne, C, 1866, The Celtic Tumuli of Dorset (1866) (Monograph). SWX8166.

<2> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1927/38 (Map). SWX1540.

('A' - SY 66508938; 'B' - SY 66708928; 'C' - SY 6658920; 'D' - SY 66788927) Tumuli (NR)

<3> Grinsell, L V, 1935-54, Dorset Barrows 1935-54 Manuscript (Unpublished document). SWX1556.

<4> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, F1 NVQ 13-JAN-1955 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<5> Rigg, J, Field Investigators Comments JR, F2 JR 01-FEB-1955 (Unpublished document). SWX1255.

<6> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 150, 166, 173 (Monograph). SDO132.

<7> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 465 (Monograph). SDO150.

'(5) Bell, possible (66538924), 110 yds. S.S.E. of last. Diam. about 75 ft., with berm about 15 ft. wide and ditch 10 ft. to 12 ft. wide; on E., ditch almost touches S.W. end of ditch of long barrow (4). Ploughed flat, visible as soil-mark. '

<8> Barton, J G, Various, Field Investigators Comments JGB, F3 JGB 12-SEP-1980 (Unpublished document). SDO11900.

<9> Grinsell, L V, 1982, Dorset Barrows Supplement, 61 (Monograph). SWX1703.

<10> Papworth, M, 1983, The South Dorset Ridgeway Project: condition and management survey, SDR 428 (Index). SDO12304.

There is no visible trace of this barrow which has been completely ploughed out in a field of ley pasture. 7/7/E

<11> Wessex Archaeology, 2011, South Dorset Ridgeway Barrow Survey 2010 (Unpublished document). SDO12407.

<12> National Monuments Record, 22-JUN-1976, NMR SY6689/20/15 (JRB 3084) (Aerial Photograph). SDO11796.

<13> National Record of the Historic Environment, 451927 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

<14> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1269048 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Oct 25 2024 10:42AM