Monument record MDO5086 - Round barrow, Hyde Hill Plantation, Tarrant Launceston

A probable Bronze Age bowl barrow, additional to those initially recorded as the Hyde Hill Plantation cemetery group. Measures less than 0.2m high with a diameter of 9m. Truncated by ploughing. Not initially identified as the 1940s aerial photographs used showed the area as woodland. Identified following the clearance of the tree plantation to form arable land in 1986. This monument may have been investigated by antiquarian Charles Warne in 1840.

The round barrow was visible as a very slight rise when visited in 2000 for MPPA, measuring less than 0.2m high with a diameter of 9m. Now lying in an arable field, it was formerly in woodland. It is located on the crest of a chalk ridge between two streams, on Launceston Down, 1200m south-east of Manor Farm. It is the most southerly of four ploughed-out round barrows on a south-facing slope forming an extended line roughly aligned north-west to south-east on the west side of the cemetery. Geophysical survey and excavation may determine the extent of survival and potential of the quarry ditch and mound. Ground photo with MPPA archive report. <3>

The probable Bronze Age bowl barrow, additional to those initially recorded as the Hyde Hill Plantation cemetery group (see ST 91 SE 61 / UID: 210105), is not visible on the available 1940s aerial photographs due to its location in woodland. Other round barrows in the cemetery are recorded as ST 91 SE 193 to 204, 233, 234, 236 and ST 91 SW 116. <4>

This monument may have been investigated by antiquarian Charles Warne in 1840. <1>

<1> Trust for Wessex Archaeology, 1986, Dorset Barrow Survey (Index). SDO134.

‘Seen in an arable field SW of the present boundary of Hyde Hill Plantation. The plantation once covered this part of the field according to OS (Map/Ordnance Survey/1961/1:25000 First Series) and consequently has not been subjected to ploughing as long as other parts of the field. The mound is 10.0m in diameter and 0.2m high. Visible as a faint swelling in a field regularly ploughed, newly ploughed and planted in grass when visited. Severely reduced and spread by ploughing. 280 paces along plantation fence from NW corner and 8 paces SW of fence. Part-excavated by Warne 1840? (Warne D/1866/Celtic Tumuli of Dorset/Nos 39, 40 Pt 1).’

<2> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1989, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1988, 143 (Serial). SDO88.

‘ST 95061039, 10.0 m dia., 0.2 m. high, ploughed down in arable. Once part of the plantation.’

<3> English Heritage, English Heritage Alternative Action Report, SJ Lobb, MPPA, Mar-2000 (Scheduling record). SDO18279.

<4> Bishop, Sharon, 2009, Tarrant Launceston 15 & Environs. Aerial Photograph Survey & Analysis, Sharon Bishop/10-SEP-2008/ Tarrant Launceston 15 and environs aerial photograph survey and analysis (Unpublished document). SDO12459.

<5> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1408628 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Apr 17 2024 10:29AM