Monument record MDO40046 - Possible Bronze Age barrow, Knowlton, Woodlands

A sub-circular cropmark on the northwest edge of the Knowlton Barrow Group is visible on 1990s aerial photographs. The feature, approximately 12m in diameter, may represent a Bronze Age or possibly a Late Prehistoric or Roman barrow although it may alternatively be natural in origin. It was mapped by English Heritage's Knowlton Circles Project and was digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

SU 0245 1054. Round barrow, probably Bronze Age in date and visible as a cropmark on aerial photographs. It was mapped by EH's Knowlton Circles Project. The barrow appears as a plough levelled sub-circular mound 11.6m in diameter. <1>

The barrow is associated with the extensive barrow cemetery known as the Knowlton Circles Barrow Group, and is probably Bronze Age in date. However, very small round barrows have been recorded elsewhere in England in Iron Age, Roman and Saxon contexts. Support for a post-Bronze Age date at Knowlton may perhaps be derived from the presence in the vicinity of possible Iron Age square barrows (SU 01 SW 210 and SU 01 SW 211). In one of the square barrow cemeteries at Garton Slack, on the Yorkshire Wolds, very small round barrows represented a very late phase of the burial rite. <4>

A sub-circular cropmark on the northwest edge of the Knowlton Barrow Group is faintly visible on 1990s aerial photographs. <2- 3>

The feature is broadly 12.3m in diameter. It may represent a Bronze Age barrow but could alternatively be natural in origin. The feature also shows well on a 2014 aerial photograph. <6>

The feature was digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP.

<1> National Monuments Record, 13-JUL-1995, NMR SU 0210/78 NMR 15314/15 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18723.

<2> National Monuments Record, 13-JUL-1995, NMR15326/006 (SU0210/066) (Aerial Photograph). SDO15701.

<3> National Monuments Record, 13-JUL-1995, NMR15314/009 (SU0210/072) (Aerial Photograph). SDO15702.

<4> Catherine Stoertz, 1997, Ancient landscapes of the Yorkshire Wolds:, 33-34 (Monograph). SDO18730.

<5> Historic England, Historic England Archive, AF1339047 (Index). SDO14738.

Object Title: EH: Knowlton Circles, Dorset.

<6> GetMapping, 2014, Digital vertical aerial photographs (Aerial Photograph). SDO14101.

<7> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1409820 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Mar 2 2023 4:26PM