Monument record MDO43270 - Bere Regis Down #8a

<NRHE site_description>: A bowl barrow located circa 350 metres north of Bere Down Farm. Listed by RCHME as Bere Regis 107 and by Grinsell as Bere Regis 2, it was originally described by RCHME as being a much spread mound 36 feet in diameter and 1 foot high. In 1981, the Ordnance Survey recorded it as a ploughed down mound 15 metres in diameter and 0.5 metres high. The barrow is scheduled. RCHME tentatively identified it with a barrow excavated circa 1850, one of four described by Warne and originally said to be on "Winterborne Kingston Down", though it is now accepted that all four were on Bere Down.This barrow, assuming the RCHME are correct in their identification, was Warne's tumulus 9, and listed separately by Grinsell as Bere Regis 8a. Grinsell made no attempt to identify these four excavated barrows with any of the known extant barrows in the area. Warne described the barrow as being 6 feet high and 30 feet in diameter. Warne describes the primary deposit, near the centre of the barrow, as comprising a large quantity of burnt bones and ashes ("charred wood, and black clayey mould") covering two urns standing side by side. One of the urns contained a circular piece of green sandstone. Near the base of the mound was what Warne described as "a cairn of flints, placed around the skeleton of a young person, with the legs drawn up". On the same level within the mound were three further small heaps of flint, spaced about two feet apart, and each covering a small deposit of burnt bones and ashes. A Beaker was found close to the summit of the mound (Warne does not mention whether any cremated remains were with it) and, slightly deeper, the sherds of a "knobbed" or lugged urn with burnt bones and ashes. Warne's tumulus 9 was previously recorded separately as part of SY 89 NW 31. That record should be consulted for further sources and information. The other extant barrow formerly described as part of this record has now been recorded separately as SY 89 NW 101. <1>

<1> Garrow, D and Cooper, A, 2021, Grave Goods Project dataset, 72873 (Machine readable data file). SDO17407.

Record last edited

Nov 22 2021 6:57PM