Monument record MDO3185 - Bowl barrow, one of the Eweleaze Barn group, Winterborne St Martin

(Centred SY 648874) Tumuli [NR] (three times). (1)

Ten barrows including a pound barrow ('F') and a quadruple bell barrow ('K'), form an irregular linear cemetery orientated roughly North West to South East on top of the second spur east of Shorn Hill. 'K' is unique in England. 'A', 'C', 'D' and 'F' were excavated by St George Gray and Prideaux in 1902.

'D' Bowl (?) (64778746) 120 yds South South West of 'C'. Only slight mound remains. Crouched (male ?) inhumation in chalk-cut grave lay under flint cairn including burnt and unburnt human bones, potsherds and flint flakes and a scraper. (2,3)

'D'. SY 64768746. Bowl barrow in arable, visible as a slight swelling with concentration of stones. Diameter 12.0m. approximately, height 0.2m. No visible ditch. Re-surveyed at 1:2500 on M.S.D.

(SY64828728; 64828720; 64818712) The cropmarks of three probable barrows on Crawford air photograph, could not be traced in arable field. (4)

A probable Early Bronze Age bowl barrow, excavated in 1905 by Harold St George Gray and C Prideaux. It is part of the Eweleaze Barn barrow group. At the time of excavation, the barrow had suffered considerably from ploughing and survived to a maximum height of 1 foot. The excavation uncovered traces of a flint cairn within the mound covering a chalk-cut pit. The cairn material included numerous unburnt and some burnt human bones, plus flint flakes, a scraper, and 15 potsherds of uncertain date, but possibly Neolithic rather than Early Bronze Age. At the bottom of the pit was a crouched inhumation with no accompanying artefacts. The skeleton was left in situ, "a leaden plate being deposited with it bearing the date of excavation and the names of the explorers". In 1980, the Ordnance Survey noted that the barrow was now only visible as a slight swelling 12 metres in diameter and 0.2 metres high, marked by a concentration of stones. <1-3>

A primary crouched male? Interment with no grave goods was also found in a grave beneath this cairn. Probably about 19 years old at death. <3>

A Bronze Age bowl barrow, part of a linear barrow cemetery comprising bowl barrows, a pond barrow, and a quadruple bell barrow (MDO3183-91). In addition, this site is visible as a cropmarked ring ditch on aerial photographs <4-5> measuring approximately 19 metres in diameter. This site was digitally plotted during the South Dorset Ridgeway Mapping Project.

National Record of the Historic Environment, 452448 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

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

Barton, J G, Various, Field Investigators Comments JGB, F1 JGB 06-MAY-80 (Unpublished document). SDO11900.

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1904, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club for 1903, 23-25 (Serial). SDO16.

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 469 (Monograph). SDO150.

<3> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 154 (Monograph). SDO132.

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

<5> unknown date, NMR SY 6487/1 (CCC 11752/1633) (Aerial Photograph). SDO11941.

<6> Papworth, M, 1983, The South Dorset Ridgeway Project: condition and management survey, SDR 307 (Index). SDO12304.

No visible trace in a regularly ploughed field of ley pasture. 7/7/E

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

<8> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1268372 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Feb 27 2024 5:05PM