Monument record MDO5079 - Launceston Down North barrow group, Tarrant Launceston

A group of at least five small barrows examined by J H Austen in 1864. The precise location of each barrow is not known, and they are no longer visible as earthworks. A cluster of urns containing cremations was found in 1938 and interpreted as part of a cremation cemetery around the barrows.

The barrows are visible only as chalk marks ranging in diameter from 4.7m to 8.7m. To the NW to ST 95401148 is a further ploughed out barrow, consisting of a nearly circular chalk rubble platform 22.0m in diameter by 0.1m high. <2>

A group of up to seven round barrows, all ploughed out, clustered together on Launceston Down. RCHME mentions "at least 5 small barrows located around ST 95451145", whereas the Ordnance Survey initially identified 6 (marked on the 1891 6 inch map), a seventh being identified in 1954. Grinsell, following the Ordnance Survey, lists six barrows (as Tarrant Launceston 19a-f). The area plan in RCHME's "Bokerley Dyke" volume again shows only 5. This group has been identified with 5 "low, small tumuli" examined by Warne and Shipp "on the longest day of 1864". Numbered 36 - 40 by Warne, details are as follows: 36 - nothing found; 37 - a secondary burial comprising a damaged urn containing cremated bone and ashes plus the tip of a bronze dagger; 38 - a possible primary cremation in an urned contained within a pit below the mound; 39 - a probable secondary cremation in an upright urn; 40 - a primary cremation within a pit below the mound, plus two secondary cremations, one within an urn. Further discoveries occurred in 1938. S and CM Piggott investigated some World War 1 training trenches , one of which cut through the barrow group. They found the remains of three Deverel-Rimbury vessels exposed in the sides of the trench, each containing cremated bone, one of them also containing a bronze spearhead fragment. A small hole was also found, containing the remains of a further pottery vessel but lacking any associated cremation. The Piggotts felt that these represented an "urnfield" (ie a cremation cemetery rather than a further levelled barrow) broadly contemporary with the small barrows, the pottery recovered by Warne being broadly comparable. <3-4>

A cluster of at least five small barrows located around 95451145, 220 ft. above O.D. on the southward-facing slope of a dry combe falling E. to the Crichel brook; all now levelled by cultivation, but examined by J.H. Austen in 1864. One yielded nothing. Another yielded a cremation, probably secondary, in an urn now lost, together with 'the point of a bronze spear or dagger'. A third barrow yielded a primary cremation in a barrel urn of 'South Lodge' type, in a pit cut in the Chalk. A fourth barrow yielded a cremation, probably secondary, in a similar urn. A fifth barrow yielded a primary cremation in a pit, and two cremations, probably secondary, above it, one of the latter having a plain urn.

In 1938 four more urns, not covered by barrows but apparently part of an urnfield, were found in the vicinity of the barrow group; three of them contained cremations, one with a fragment of a bronze spearhead. <4>

The site of these barrows and urnfield lies within an area of newly planted woodland at the edge of an arable field. The barrows were largely ploughed out by 1954 and cannot now be verified on the ground. As all were partially excavated, they have limited archaeological potential. It is possible that there may be other intact cremations in the urnfield, but since the extent of the urnfield cannot be determined, the monument is not recommended for scheduling. Ground photo with archive report. <5>

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1891 (Map). SWX1540.

(Centred ST 954114) Tumuli (NR) (six shown)

<2> Swatridge, G C, Various, Field Investigators Comments GCS, F1 GCS 06-APR-54 (Unpublished document). SWX1169.

<3> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 136 (Monograph). SDO132.

<4> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1972, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume IV (North), 107 (Monograph). SDO99.

'The Launceston Down North Group comprised a cluster of at least five small barrows located around 95451145, 220 ft. above O.D. on the southward-facing slope of a dry combe falling E. to the Crichel brook; all have now been levelled by cultivation, but each barrow was examined by J. H. Austen in 1864. One yielded nothing. Another yielded a cremation, probably secondary, in an urn now lost, together with 'the point of a bronze spear or dagger'. A third barrow yielded a primary cremation in a barrel urn of 'South Lodge' type, in a pit cut in the Chalk. A fourth barrow yielded a cremation, probably secondary, in a similar urn. A fifth barrow yielded a primary cremationin a pit, and two cremations, probably secondary, above it, one of the latter having a plain urn (C.T.D., Pt. 2, nos. 36-40; Ant. J., XIII (1933), 447; Arch. J., CXIX (1962), 20, 54, 55). In 1938 four more urns, not covered by barrows but apparently part of an urnfield, were found in the vicinity of the barrow group; three of them contained cremations, one with a fragment of a bronze spearhead (Arch., XC (1944), 50, 60, 61).'

<4.1> Warne, C, 1866, The Celtic Tumuli of Dorset (1866), Communications from personal friends, tumuli 36-40 (Monograph). SWX8166.

<4.2> Piggott, Stuart, and Piggott, C M, 1944, 'Excavation of Barrows on Crichel and Launceston Downs, Dorset'; Archaeologia 90 (Article in serial). SDO16772.

<4.3> Royal Archaeological Institute, 1962, The Archaeological Journal 119, 20, 54-55 (Serial). SDO17903.

<5> English Heritage, English Heritage Alternative Action Report, S J Lobb, Mar-2000 (Scheduling record). SDO18279.

<6> National Record of the Historic Environment, 210098 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Feb 23 2024 1:50PM