Monument record MDO4330 - Bowl barrow north of Breeze Hill, 540m ESE of the top of Zig-Zag Hill, Melbury Abbas

A Bronze Age ditched bowl barrow, part of a dispersed group of barrows on Breeze Hill on the northern part of Melbury Down. In 1972 this barrow was reported as about 42 feet in diameter with a mound about one foot high, and disturbed on its north-west and south-east sides. The record for this monument has been enhanced with support from Wessex Water.

As a result of the disturbance and ploughing, the mound was elongated in a NE-SW direction and, when it was surveyed by the Ordnance Survey in 1956, was 13.0 m long by 10.0 m wide and 0.4 m high. There was a depression or ditch on the NW side, 8.0 m long, 4.0 m wide and 0.2 m deep, with possibly a similar ditch on the SE side.

Listed under bowl barrows (A' is also referred to a list of Long Barrows, but it is not mentioned in that list.) 'A'. Diameter 14 paces and 10 paces. Height 3ft. <2>

'A'. This barrow has been under the plough, though it is now grass and stubble covered. The mound is elongated in a NE-SW direction, and is 13.0m. Long, and 10.0m. Wide; it is 0.4m. High. There is a depression or ditch on the NW side, 8.0m. Long, 4.0m. Wide and 0.2m. Deep. A similar sort of ditch may have existed on the SE side, but this has been filled with flints. The condition of the barrow is poor, and it cannot readily be classfied upon visual inspection, though it could possibly be a very small long barrow. <3>

ST 898206. Round barrow north of Breeze Hill (presumably barrow 'A') Scheduled. <6>

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1930 (Map). SWX1540.

('A' - ST 89792054; 'B' - ST 89772050) Tumuli (NR)

<2> Rigg, J, Field Investigators Comments JR, F1 JR 14-JUN-55 (Unpublished document). SWX1255.

<2.1> Grinsell, L V, 1935-54, Dorset Barrows 1935-54 Manuscript (Unpublished document). SWX1556.

<3> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, F2 NVQ 24-JAN-56 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<4> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 119 (Monograph). SDO132.

<5> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1972, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume IV (North), 48 (Monograph). SDO99.

'(14) Bowl (89802055), adjacent to the foregoing on the N.E. and at approximately the same alititude, has been disturbed in the N.W. and S.E. sides ; diam. 42 ft., ht. 1 ft.'

<6> Department of the Environment, 1977, Department of the Environment (IAM) Ancient Monuments of England (Vol 1) (Monograph). SWX2598.

<7> National Record of the Historic Environment, 206538 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Nov 2 2024 8:40AM