Monument record MDO44128 - Roman barrow on Woodcutts Common, Sixpenny Handley

A probable barrow of Phase II (for dating, see main record). Excavations by Pitt-Rivers showed it to be earlier than about 325 AD, and later than the mid 2nd century. In the E side of the mound, at a depth of 14 ins, was an urn full of bones, and the absence of a more central deposite may be due to an excavation by J H Austen in 1863. <3>

An irregualr, grass-covered mound some 8.0m in diameter by 0.4m high. It bears little resemblance to a Roman barrow, but may have been disfigured by General Pitt-Rivers' reconstruction of the settlement. <4>

Round barrow 9 paces in diameter by 1 1/4ft high. <5>

<1> Pitt Rivers, A H L F, 1887, Excavations in Cranborne Chase near Rushmore, on the borders of Dorset and Wilts. Vol. 1: excavations in the Romano-British village on Woodcuts Common, and Romano-British antiquities in Rushmore Park (Monograph). SDO18399.

<2> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey 25 inch scale map, 1901 (Map). SDO18020.

(ST 96291814) Tumulus (NR)

<3> Piggott, S, Stone, J F S, and Shortt, H De S, 1947, The Archaeology of Salisbury and District: Britons, Romans and Saxons Round Salisbury and in Cranborne Chase: reviewing the excavations of General Pitt-Rivers, 1881-1898; Antiquaries Journal CIV, 1-26 (Article in serial). SDO16715.

<4> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, F1 NVQ 08-APR-54 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<5> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 113 (Monograph). SDO132.

<6> National Record of the Historic Environment, 209827 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Aug 30 2022 12:02PM