Monument record MDO3172 - Round barrow on Grove Hill, one of the Sherf Barrow Group, Winterborne St Martin

Site of a Bronze Age barrow, recorded as an extant mound in 1970 and also visible as an earthwork and cropmarks on aerial photographs. One of a group of three barrows.

A Bronze Age barrow recorded by the RCHM as an extant earthwork, 2.5 ft. high. One of three barrows (MDO3172-4) which form a west-east line along the crest of Grove Hill about 1 mile north of the Ridgeway, though visible from it. All have been ploughed. This barrow is one of two called 'Sherf Barrows' on Isaac Taylor's Estate Map of c 1770, when both lay in an area of former open fields and were surrounded by square enclosures. {1}

It is also visible as an earthwork and cropmarks on aerial photographs {2-5} and was digitally plotted during the South Dorset Ridgeway Mapping Project. It is visible as an earthwork mound, approximately 18 metres in diameter, on earlier RAF photographs {2}, suggesting it is perhaps a bowl barrow type. However later photographs {3-5}, taken after the mound has been plough-levelled, reveal an outer ditch, approximately 1.8 metres in width and 33 metres in diameter, possibly suggestive of a bell barrow type.

Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/093 RCHME Inventory: Dorset II (South-East) (Unpublished document). SDO17434.

National Record of the Historic Environment, 452451 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1963 (Map). SWX1540.

Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 152 (Monograph). SDO132.

Barton, J G, Various, Field Investigators Comments JGB, F1 JGB 26-FEB-80 (Unpublished document). SDO11900.

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 468 (Monograph). SDO150.

<2> Royal Air Force, 04-NOV-1946, RAF/CPE/UK/1824 4275-7 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11888.

<3> unknown date, NMR SY 6488/2 (CCC 11755/5805) (Aerial Photograph). SDO11889.

<4> 4-8-1995, NMR SY6388/5 (15344/10) (Aerial Photograph). SDO11890.

<5> 4-8-1995, NMR SY6488/3 (15372/30) (Aerial Photograph). SDO11891.

<6> Papworth, M, 1983, The South Dorset Ridgeway Project: condition and management survey, SDR 314 (Index). SDO12304.

Bowl barrow diameter 31.0m and ht. 1.3m. No visible ditch. Situated in a field usually ploughed about twice a year. 1/5/D

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 Wessex Archaeology, 2011, South Dorset Ridgeway Barrow Survey 2010 (Unpublished document).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

Record last edited

Oct 26 2023 1:06PM