Monument record MDO4195 - Bowl barrow on Little Down, Langton Long Blandford

A Bronze Age bowl barrow, probably the barrow known as 'Down Wood Barrow', which was opened by Cunnington in 1881 when three primary contracted inhumations and three secondary cremations were found. In 1972 the RCHME reported that the monument was about 45 feet in diameter, but has now been ploughed out. The record for this monument has been enhanced with support from Wessex Water. The barrow is faintly visible as a sub-circular banked earthwork on 1940s aerial photographs and on Environment Agency lidar imagery and was digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM Project.

The monument includes a ditched bowl barrow 80m west of Dormy House on Little Down, one of several barrows on Little and Rawston Down. The barrow has a flat topped mound c.16m in diameter and 0.6m high, which has an irregular surface. The mound is surrounded by a ditch, c.2m wide, which is partly visible on the north and south sides of the mound. This is probably the barrow, known as Down Wood Barrow, opened by Cunnington in 1881 when three primary contracted inhumations and three secondary cremations were identified.

The barrow is faintly visible as a sub-circular banked earthwork on 1940s aerial photographs and on Environment Agency lidar imagery and was digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM Project <5, 6>.

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1916, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club for 1916, 46 (Serial). SDO25.

'42. The Down Wood, 2 miles from Blandford, on the left of the road towards Wimborne. Opened in the presence of the Field Club, Sept. 29, 1881. At 3ft. 9ins. from surface, three cremations ; the primary interments 3ft. 0ins. below ground level ; 3 contracted skeletons. No pottery found.'

<2> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1938 (Map). SWX1540.

(ST 91590669, ST 91560664, ST 91580658) Tumuli (NR)

<3> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 116 (Monograph). SDO132.

<4> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1972, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume IV (North), 45 (Monograph). SDO99.

'(12) Bowl (91580658), on Little Down, on the crest of a Chalk ridge, 330 ft. above O.D., was about 45 ft. in diameter, but now is ploughed out. Probably this is ‘Down Wood Barrow’, opened by Cunnington in 1881 to yield three primary contracted inhumations and three secondary cremations, but no grave goods (Dorset Procs., XXXVII (1916), 46; Cunnington MS., no. 42).'

<5> Royal Air Force, 01-JAN-1948, RAF/CPE/UK/2431 RS 4320 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18501.

<6> Environment Agency, 16-NOV-2021, LIDAR Environment Agency DTM (Aerial Photograph). SDO18034.

<7> National Record of the Historic Environment, 209348 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Oct 25 2024 10:25AM