Monument record MDO47585 - Bowl barrow on Hambledon Hill, Child Okeford

A slight, irregular mound on Hambledon Hill, within the southern end of the hill-fort. It is interpreted as a Bronze Age bowl barrow. The feature is visible as a low earthwork mound on 1920s aerial photographs and Environment Agency lidar imagery. It was digitally plotted during the Mid Dorset Downs AIM project.

Two bowl barrows: 'B' (ST 84521238). Diameter 5 paces and height 1/4 foot. Very flat circle with a slight ditch. (Not listed by RCHM). <1> <3>

ST 84521238. 'B' There is a slight, irregular mound, about 4.0m across and 0.2m high, about 20.0m south of 'A' but it cannot be positively identified as a barrow. The surrounding area is uneven; probably the result of settlement within the Iron Age hillfort. <4>

Between late May and late August 1996 the Cambridge and Exeter offices of RCHME carried out an earthwork survey and aerial photographic interpretation of the complex of monuments on Hambledon Hill as part of the project to record Industry and Enclosure in the Neolithic period.

Barrow B (ST 8452 1238) is as described by Source 5. It has been almost levelled by ploughing and is cut by a furrow. For further details, see RCHME Level 3 client report and earthwork plan at 1:1000 scale, held in archive. <5>

The feature is visible as a low earthwork mound around 6m in diameter on 1920s aerial photographs and Environment Agency lidar imagery (ALK 1924; EA 2018). It was digitally plotted during the Mid Dorset Downs AIM project.

Alexander Keiller Collection, 14-JUL-1924, ALK/7434 251 (Aerial Photograph). SDO21576.

Environment Agency, xx-xxx-2018, Environment Agency National Lidar Programme DTM 1M (Aerial Photograph). SDO21483.

<1> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 100 (Monograph). SDO132.

<2> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1962 (Map). SWX1540.

ST 84521238 & ST 84521240 Tumuli (NR)

<3> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 1, 83 (Monograph). SDO146.

'(25) BOWL BARROW (84521240) on Hambledon Hill, within the S. end of the hill-fort; centre disturbed; traces of ditch on S.; diam. 40 ft., ht.1½ ft.'

<4> Chaplin, C P, Various, Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Field Investigator's Comments CC, F1 CC 07-APR-78 (Unpublished document). SWX3450.

<4.1> NMR ST 8412/3 & 5 (Aerial Photograph). SDO20386.

<5> RCHME: Industry and Enclosure in the Neolithic (Monograph). SWX1665.

<6> National Record of the Historic Environment, 206242 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Dec 5 2025 4:48PM