Monument record MDO40051 - Round barrow, Knowlton, Woodlands

A small round barrow, measuring 9.3m in diameter with an outer 1m wide ditch, is visible as a sub-circular cropmark on aerial photographs from 1970 and 1995. It is located just to the northwest of the Great Barrow in the Knowlton Circles Barrow Group. It has been built among larger Bronze Age mounds and could be of a similar date. However, its small size suggests that a later, possibly Iron Age, date is possible. The feature was digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

[NGD note 06-03-23: The following information from the NRHE-to-HER database has subsequently become 3 separate records on the HBSMR database: MDO40050, MDO40051 and MDO40052. Due to only providing 1 set of coordinates for all 3 barrows it cannot be determined which barrow represents which and the Dorset Stour NMP Project has subsequently recorded slightly different dimensions.]

SU 0249 1038. Three very small round barrows, visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs, have been recorded just to the northwest of the Great Barrow in the Knowlton Circles Barrow Group. Two of the small barrows have diameters of 8.1m, and the third is 8.5m in diameter. They have been built among larger Bronze Age mounds, and could be of similar date. However, their small size suggests that a later date is possible. <1>

The date of these barrows is uncertain. Very small round barrows have been recorded elsewhere in England in Bronze Age, 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, 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 Iron Age burial rite. <5>

A sub-circular cropmark on the northwest edge of the Knowlton Barrow Group is visible on 1970s and 1990s aerial photographs. <2-4>

The sub-circular feature measures 9.3m in diameter and has an outer 1m wide ditch. The feature may represent a small Bronze Age barrow. Alternatively, a later, possibly Iron Age origin is also possible.

The feature was digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP.

<1> National Monuments Record, 26-JUN-1970, NMR SU 0210/6-7 (NMR 290/107-8) (Aerial Photograph). SDO18733.

<2> John Boyden, 26-JUN-70, JRB290/108 (SU0210/007) (Aerial Photograph). SDO15705.

<3> National Monuments Record, 13-JUL-1995, NMR15326/006 (SU0210/066) (Aerial Photograph). SDO15701.

<4> National Monuments Record, 13-JUL-1995, NMR15314/009 (SU0210/072) (Aerial Photograph). SDO15702.

<5> Stoertz, Catherine, 1997, Ancient landscapes of the Yorkshire Wolds:, 33-4 (Monograph). SDO18730.

<6> Historic England, Historic England Archive, AF1339047 (Index). SDO14738.

Object Title: EH: Knowlton Circles, Dorset

<7> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1441993 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Sep 12 2024 10:34AM