Monument record MDO37391 - Round barrow east of the B3082, c 290 metres west of Target Wood, Shapwick and Tarrant Rushton

A Bronze Age round barrow clearly visible as a circular, annular cropmark with a diameter of approximately 24 metres on aerial photographs dated 2005, and as a diffuse annular soilmark with a chalk-rick centre on aerial photographs dated 2009. The record for this monument has been created with support from Wessex Water. The barrow is visible as a cropmark ring ditch on aerial photographs taken in 1995 and was digitally plotted during the Dorset Miiddle Stour AI&M Project. The barrow mound is still visible on lidar imagery.

A possible Bronze Age round barrow is recorded as cropmarks on 2015 Historic England oblique aerial photographs. It is visible as a ring ditch with broad ditch (about 2-3m wide) enclosing an area with a diameter of about 20m. It is also recorded on 2005 and 2018 Google Earth vertical aerial photographs. This could be the barrow described in NRHE record 209271 but the location information in that record is not clear enough to be certain. It is centred at ST 9446 0396. <1-3>

The2005 <4> and 2009 <5> aerial photographs both appear to show lighter-coloured, chalkier soil inside the ditch, suggesting that at least some remnant mound material may survive. No other associated features could be discerned. The monument lies on the boundary between Tarrant Rushton and Shapwick parishes (visible as a linear cropmark crossing its northeasternmost arc), with the great majority of the barrow lying in Shapwick parish.

There is a possibility, although doubtful, that this could be the same barrow as Grinsell's Tarrant Rushton 5 (MDO5159) <6> . However, there are other possible locations for that monument at, or closer to its mapped location.

The barrow is visible as a cropmark ring ditch 22m across on aerial photographs taken in 1995 <7> and was digitally plotted during the Dorset Miiddle Stour AI&M Project. The barrow mound is still visible on lidar imagery <8>.

<1> Historic England Archive, 23-APR-2015, HEA 29559_038-042 (Aerial Photograph). SDO19393.

<2> Google Earth, 01-JAN-2005, Google Earth 2005, ACCESSED 14-DEC-2018 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18557.

<3> Google Earth, 2018, Google Earth 2018, ACCESSED 14-DEC-2018 (Aerial Photograph). SDO16663.

<4> GetMapping, 2005, Digital vertical aerial photographs (Aerial Photograph). SDO12563.

<5> Dorset County Council, 2009, Digital vertical aerial photographs (Aerial Photograph). SDO12079.

<6> Grinsell, L V, 1982, Dorset Barrows Supplement (Monograph). SWX1703.

<7> National Monuments Record, 13-JUL-1995, NMR 15315/53 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18312.

<8> Environment Agency, 16-NOV-2021, LIDAR Environment Agency DTM (Aerial Photograph). SDO18034.

<9> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1622673 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Oct 3 2023 9:02AM