Monument record MDO3148 - Bell barrow in the Bronkham Hill group, Winterborne St Martin

Site of a possible Bronze Age bell barrow, part of a larger barrow cemetery extending along the South Dorset Ridgeway. Recorded as an extant mound by field investigators and also visible as an earthwork on aerial photographs.

Original field investigations decribed it as a bell barrow. Diameter 68 ft, height 6 ft with berm 7 ft wide at most. Ditch up to 9 ft wide and 1 ft deep {1-2}.

Later field investigations suggested it more likely to be a bowl barrow as there was no evidence of a berm. Diameter overall 27.0m., height 2.3m. Ditch 2.5m. Wide and 0.2m. Deep. Crossed by a fence {3}.

Also visible as an earthwork on aerial photographs {4-7}, the mound measuring approximately 17 metres in diameter, with an outer ditch 0.6 metres in width, seperated by a berm of around 1.9 metres width. This site was digitally plotted during the South Dorset Ridgeway Mapping Project.

<1> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows (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, 467 (Monograph). SDO150.

‘(48) Bell (62828679) 45 yds. E.S.E. of (47). Diam. 68 ft., ht. 6 ft., with berm 7 ft. wide at most. Ditch up to 9 ft. wide and 1 ft. deep.’

<3> Barton, J G, Various, Field Investigators Comments JGB (Unpublished document). SDO11900.

<4> Royal Air Force, 04-NOV-1946, RAF/CPE/UK/1824 3293-5 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11893.

<5> Royal Air Force, 22-1-1948, RAF/CPE/UK/2431 3295-6 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11932.

<6> 14-4-1957, CUCAP (UM64) (Aerial Photograph). SDO11944.

<7> unknown date, NMR SY6286/2 (CCC 1755/5900) (Aerial Photograph). SDO11945.

<8> Papworth, M, 1983, The South Dorset Ridgeway Project: condition and management survey, SDR 286 (Index). SDO12304.

Diameter overall 27.0m and ht. 2.3m. Ditch 2.5m wide and 0.2m deep. Probably a ditched bowl but a break of slope on the E side of the mound may be the survival of a berm, very stony with numerous flints and some sarsens. Situated in heathland. A N-S fence crosses the barrow on its W end. A very well preserved barrow. 1/1/A

<9> Wessex Archaeology, 2011, South Dorset Ridgeway Barrow Survey 2010 (Unpublished document). SDO12407.

Record last edited

Apr 16 2016 10:07AM