Monument record MDO5051 - Bowl barrow, one of the Hyde Hill Plantation Group, Tarrant Launceston

A Bronze Age bowl barrow, known as barrow "B" of the Hyde Hill Plantation cemetery group. It was described by RCHME as a mound 40 feet in diameter and 2.5 feet high, with traces of a surrounding ditch.

The Bronze Age bowl barrow referred to as barrow "B" within the Hyde Hill Plantation cemetery group (ST 91 SE 61 / UID: 210105) is visible as a slight earthwork on aerial photographs. The round barrow comprises a circular mound which measures 16m in diameter.

Other round barrows in the cemetery are recorded as ST 91 SE 194 to 204, 233, 234, 236 and ST 91 SW 116. <3>

This barrow was formerly recorded as part of ST 91 SE 61.

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1972, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume IV (North), 106-7 (Monograph). SDO99.

'The Hyde Hill Plantation Group comprises thirteen barrows (23-35) in two concentrations in and S.E. of the plantation; they lie between 340 ft. and 360 ft. above O.D. along the crest of a broad Chalk ridge between the Tarrant and Crichel Brooks. Most of them have been severely damaged by ploughing and (28), (29), (31) and (35) have been obliterated. Two barrows excavated by Warne in 1840 probably lay in this group; one of them yielded a primary cremation under a flint cairn, the other yielded only charcoal and ashes (C.T.D., Pt. 1, Nos. 39 and 40). The 'Launceston Sepulchralia' examined by Warne in 1840 probably lay in this area; it appears to have been a cremation cemetery, with the cremations in groups of holes in the chalk, each group being covered with a layer of closely packed flint nodules (C.T.D., Pt. 1, 57-8; Arch. J., CVIII (1951), 14, note 1) … (24) Bowl (95111043); diam. 40 ft., ht. 2½ ft., with traces of surrounding ditch.'

<2> Grinsell, L V, 1982, Dorset Barrows Supplement, p51 (Monograph). SWX1703.

<3> Ordnance Survey, 24-APR-1988, NMR OS/88055 188-189, NMR OS/88055 188-189 24-APR-1988 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18378.

<4> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1306180 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jan 22 2025 4:53PM