Monument record MDO3396 - Bowl barrow, one of the Sheep Down Group, Winterbourne Steepleton

Five round barrows, including a double bowl and a pond barrow lie above apparent limit of 'Celtic' fields on a broad spur running North East from the Ridgeway at about 460 ft above OD. … 'E' Bowl (?) (60878907) on summit of spur 130 yds North East of 'D'. Only slight rise remains. <1> <3>

'E' SY 60868906. Barrow in arable, ploughed almost flat. Diameter approximately 20.0m., height 0.2m. No visible ditch. A, C, D, E Re-surveyed at 1:2500 on MSD. <4>

Site of a possible Bronze Age bowl barrow. It is one of a group of several Bronze Age Barrows noted on Sheep Down (MDO3392-6) that lie above apparent limit of 'Celtic' fields (MDO3414) on a broad spur running North East from the Ridgeway at about 460 ft above OD.

It is also visible as a circular cropmark on aerial photographs <7> measuring approximately 23 metres in diameter, and was digitally plotted during the South Dorset Ridgeway Mapping Project.

<1> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 156 (Monograph). SDO132.

<2> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1963 (Map). SWX1540.

('B' - SY 60688901; 'C' - SY 60718904; 'D' - SY 60758902; 'E' - SY 60868906) Tumuli (NR)

<3> 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.

<4> Barton, J G, Various, Field Investigators Comments JGB, F1 JGB 12-MAR-80 (Unpublished document). SDO11900.

<5> Papworth, M, 1983, The South Dorset Ridgeway Project: condition and management survey, SDR 191 (Index). SDO12304.

Now only 0.2m high and 26m in diameter. Visible as an area of darker soil with a few chalk lumps and numerous flints. Newly ploughed in cultivated field.

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 Wessex Archaeology, 2011, South Dorset Ridgeway Barrow Survey 2010 (Unpublished document).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

<7> 25-4-1968, NMR OS/68078 005-7 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11808.

<8> National Record of the Historic Environment, 452384 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Dec 14 2023 1:23PM