Monument record MDO3312 - Three Barrow Clump Group: bell barrow

Bronze Age bell barrow visible as low earthworks on LiDAR imagery, and one of a group of ten round barrows. In 1970 this monument was reported as being around 73 feet in diameter with a mound about 10 feet high, with a surrounding berm and ditch.

A. Evidently formerly a large bowl barrow or bell barrow. There remains a circular area 28 paces in diameter, the mound having been quarried away, surrounded by a ditch 11ft wide D.E.F.G.H.J. Six bowl barrows F is 22 paces in diameter, 7ft in height with a ditch; the remain five are 6-10 paces diameter, 1-2ft high. <2>

See air photo STJ/BZ067.
A. SY 59779019. Probably the remains of a barrow, the mound of which has been destroyed. The circular depression left has an approximate diameter of 18.0m., outside which a ditch 3.0m wide and 0.5m deep is visible except on the E. side. <3>

Bronze Age bell barrow at Three Barrow Clump. The site is visible as low earthworks on LiDAR imagery. <7>

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

[Group Centred SY 59719022] TUMULI [OE]

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 Grinsell, L V, 1935-54, Dorset Barrows 1935-54 Manuscript (Unpublished document).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

<3> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, F1 NVQ 31-DEC-54 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<4> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 463 (Monograph). SDO150.

‘THREE BARROW CLUMP GROUP (SY 59 SE). Ten barrows, including one, possibly two, bells and one pond barrow, on the top and N. slope of a spur on S. side of S. Winterborne valley. Most have been damaged. … (41) Bell (59809018) immediately adjacent to (40) on E. and probably later than it. Diam. 73 ft., ht. 10 ft., with berm 9 ft. wide and ditch 13 ft. wide and 2 ft. deep.’

<5> Papworth, M, 1983, The South Dorset Ridgeway Project: condition and management survey, SDR 131 (Index). SDO12304.

Ditch is now only visible as a faint encircling depression, with the berm visible to the N. 2.0m wide. The ditch has been disturbed by quarrying. On the western edge of the slope appears to have been steepened by ploughing. Cattle erosion on the lower slope in two places on the north side of the mound. Both the mound and the surrounding field were covered with established grass when visited. 1/2/B

<6> Wessex Archaeology, 2011, South Dorset Ridgeway Barrow Survey 2010 (Unpublished document). SDO12407.

<7> 21-FEB-2008, D0089651 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11144.

<8> National Record of the Historic Environment, 451268 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jan 17 2025 3:47PM