Monument record MDO33 - Barrow on Wears Hill, Abbotsbury

A Bronze Age bowl barrow. In 1952 this monument was reported as being around 44 feet in diameter with a mound about 4½ feet high, and with visible traces of a ditch around the mound.

'C'. Ditched bowl barrow; diameter 16 paces, height 4ft. <2>

Similar information. <3>

'A', 'B' and 'C'. Three grass covered bowl barrows with diameters from 12-15m and heights from 1.0 - 1.5m. Each has been encroached upon by the plough. 'C' alone has a vague unsurveyable ditch. <4>

'C' - SY 56998628. Abbotsbury 12. Bowl barrows listed, details as Authy 2 except that 'C' is given as 5ft high. <5>

SY 565863 - SY 569863. Group of four round barrows S of Gorwell Gate. Scheduled. <6>

A barrow is visible as earthworks on aerial photographs at SY5698886302. It was digitally plotted during the South Dorset Ridgeway Mapping Project. <9>

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1903 (Map). SWX1540.

('A' - SY 56918629; 'B' - SY 56958628; 'C' - SY 56998630) Tumuli (NR)

<2> Grinsell, L V, 1935-54, Dorset Barrows 1935-54 Manuscript (Unpublished document). SWX1556.

<3> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments England, 1952, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume I (West), 11 (Monograph). SDO97.

'BARROWS, on or near the ridgeway running along Wears Hill and White Hill on the N. side of the parish, form three groups. ... The second group consists of three barrows with an outlier to the W. ... (d), bowl barrow, 50 yards E.N.E. of (c), is 44 ft. in diam. and 4½ ft. high with traces of a ditch. ...'

<4> Swatridge, G C, Various, Field Investigators Comments GCS, F1 GCS 24-MAR-55 (Unpublished document). SWX1169.

<5> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 85 (Monograph). SDO132.

<6> Department of the Environment, 1978, Department of the Environment (IAM) Ancient Monuments of England (Vol 2), 59 (Monograph). SWX1687.

<7> Papworth, M, 1983, The South Dorset Ridgeway Project: condition and management survey, SDR 41 (Index). SDO12304.

Affected by basal ploughing but remains uncultivated in a field of ley pasture. Vague, unsurveyable ditch reported in 1955 was no longer visible. 1/3/C

<8> Wessex Archaeology, 2011, South Dorset Ridgeway Barrow Survey 2010 (Unpublished document). SDO12407.

<9> Royal Air Force, 22-JAN-1948, RAF/CPE/UK/2431 3286-7 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11626.

<10> National Record of the Historic Environment, 450362 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Nov 16 2023 3:16PM