Monument record MDO4582 - Bowl barrow, one of the Pimperne East Group, Pimperne

One of five small plough-levelled round barrows of uncertain date: all have been posited by Grinsell (1959) and the RCHME (1972) as potentially of post Bronze Age (Iron Age or Saxon) date, although they could alternatively be Middle Bronze Age monuments. The record for this monument has been enhanced with support from Wessex Water.

The mounds are visible on the ground only as small flinty patches in a grass field. Situated at ST 91591039 is a slight mound (F) 9.0m in diameter and 0.2m high. It is unlikely to be a barrow, but may have been part of a bank or lynchet mutilated by ploughing. <1>

An alternative explanation for the small size of these barrows is that they could be of Middle Bronze Age date, associated with a tradition of constructing smaller, more standardised and less conspicuous round barrows in Dorset at this time. <4>

<1> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, F1 NVQ 20-DEC-55 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<2> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 125 (Monograph). SDO132.

<3> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1963 (Map). SWX1540.

(Centred ST 915103) Tumuli (NR) (sites of) (NAT)

<4> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1972, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume IV (North), 55 (Monograph). SDO99.

'Remains of at least seventeen barrows are found in the parish, nearly all of them levelled by ploughing. There is no record that any of them have been excavated … Pimperne East Group comprises five small bowl barrows situated near the E. boundary of the parish, some 250 yds. S.W. of Pimperne Long Barrow (TARRANT HINTON (24)). They lie on a gentle S. slope at 350 ft. above O.D. and are levelled by ploughing. They remain undated; because of their small size it has been suggested that they may be of the Iron Age or Saxon (Dorset Barrows, 125)… (33) Bowl (91551035)'.

<5> Peters, F, 2000, Farmers and their ancestral tombs: A study of the inconspicuous barrows of central Dorset and their relationship with the secular landscape, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History & Archaeological Society 121, 2000, 37-48 (Article in serial). SDO19446.

<6> National Record of the Historic Environment, 210175 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

May 8 2024 12:07PM