Monument record MDO3841 - Bowl barrow on Fore Top, Fontmell Magna

Possible Bronze Age bowl barrow on Fore Top, Fontmell Magna near the parish boundary with Compton Abbas. It survives as a low round mound. The record for this monument has been enhanced with support from Wessex Water.

ST 88381836 A probable bowl barrow 10 paces in diameter and 1 foot high. <1>

Possible bowl barrow, on the neck of Fore Top, on the parish boundary between Fontmell Magna and Compton Abbas. Its diameter is 30 feet and its height 1 foot. <2>

At ST 88331828 is another small grass covered mound, diameter 9.0m height 0.3m. There is no visible ditch. It may be a denuded bowl barrow. Neither is visible on OS air photographs. Divorced survey at 1:2500 on permatrace. <3>

<1> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 108 (Monograph). SDO132.

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1972, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume IV (North), 27 (Monograph). SDO99.

'(36) BOWL (?) BARROW (88381836), on the neck of Fore Top, over 700 ft. above O.D., lies on the parish boundary with Compton Abbas; diam. 30 ft., ht.1 ft.'

<3> Barrett, G, Various, Field Investigators Comments GB, F1 GB 28-JAN-78 (Unpublished document). SDO17369.

<3.1> Ordnance Survey, OS/75/371 141-2 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18363.

<4> Trust for Wessex Archaeology, 1986, Dorset Barrow Survey (Index). SDO134.

'Visible as a faint rise on Fore Top in permanent grassland, within a National Trust reserve. A slight hollow on top may indicate past excavation. A cross ridge dyke lies to SW.'

<5> Historic England, Historic England Archive, BB69/01709 SECTION ACROSS CROSS-RIDGE DYKE ON CREST OF FORE TOP ONE OF SEVERAL ON THIS HILL (Index). SDO14738.

<6> National Record of the Historic Environment, 205935 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Small grass-covered mound, diameter 9.0m height 0.3m. There is no visible ditch. It may be a denuded bowl barrow.

Record last edited

Aug 30 2022 2:26PM