Monument record MDO3386 - Round barrow, one of the Big Wood Group,Winterbourne Steepleton

A barrow is visible as an earthwork on aerial photographs {1} {2} and LIDAR {3}.

It has an outer bank, approximately 30 metres in diameter, which surrounds what appears to be an internal mound with an outer ditch. It has initially been recorded as a pond barrow, although the presence of a possible internal mound suggests it could in fact be a bell barrow. It is part of a linear Bronze Age barrow cemetery running northeast-south west along the edge of Big Wood.

It was digitally plotted during the South Dorset Ridgeway Mapping Project.

'(39) Pond barrow (60718954) 85 yds. N.E. of (38). Circular depression 80 ft. in diam. and 2 ft. deep surrounded by bank 13 ft. wide and up to 2 ft. high. Ploughing, which is clipping the bank, is making it square rather than round.' (4)

<1> 21-4-1984, NMR OS/84037 304-5 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11793.

<2> Royal Air Force, 09-MAR-1948, RAF/CPE/UK/2475 3067-9 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11792.

<3> 24-1-2008, LIDAR D0089652 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11794.

<4> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 472 (Monograph). SDO150.

<5> Papworth, M, 1983, The South Dorset Ridgeway Project: condition and management survey, SDR 167 (Index). SDO12304.

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 Wessex Archaeology, 2011, South Dorset Ridgeway Barrow Survey 2010 (Unpublished document).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

Record last edited

Jan 27 2025 1:56PM