Monument record MDO5304 - Rowbarrow, Winterborne Stickland

A bowl barrow described in 1970 as being around 70 feet in diameter with a mound about 2 feet high, and heavily ploughed. The mound is damaged, presumably by antiquarian investigation, and is thought to be one of two barrows opened by Baron Hambro and William Shipp in 1860. The feature is visible as a sub-circular banked and ditched cropmark and earthwork on 1940s aerial photographs and Environment Agency lidar imagery and was digitally plotted during the Mid Dorset Downs AIM project.

Rowbarrow, a bowl barrow, at ST 82570667, damaged by digging and heavy ploughing, measures about 70 ft diameter by 2ft high. It is almost certainly Warne's No 16 which was opened by Baron Hambro and William Shipp in 1860. It was composed almost entirely of flints; in the centre 'on a raised bed of clay' was a cremation under an inverted urn; a secondary deposit of three cremations in urns had been found a few years earlier in the north side of the mound. <2>

The feature is visible as a sub-circular banked and ditched cropmark and earthwork on 1940s aerial photographs and Environment Agency lidar imagery where it comprises a 23m in diameter mound and an approximately 3m wide outer ditch (RAF 1947; EA 2018). It was digitally plotted during the Mid Dorset Downs AIM project.

Royal Air Force, 17-JAN-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1934 FS 2168 (Aerial Photograph). SDO21614.

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

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey map 1:10,560, 1968 (Map). SDO18658.

(ST 82570667) Rowbarrow

<2> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 2, 309 (Monograph). SDO136.

'Two round barrows, almost certainly those described below, were opened by Baron Hambro and William Shipp in 1860 (C.T.D., Pt. 2, Nos. 16 and 17; Hutchins I, 331). The first, probably (19), was 14 ft. high and was composed largely of flints; in the centre 'on a raised bed of clay' was a cremation under an inverted urn; a secondary deposit of three cremations in urns had been found a few years earlier in the N. side of the mound. The second barrow, probably (18), was 5 ft. high and was composed almost entirely of large tabular flints, most of which were removed. Fragments of pottery and charcoal were found, but no interment. . . . (19) ROWBARROW (82570667), bowl, lies 600 yds. N.W. of Hedge End Farm at 400 ft. above O.D. on an E-facing slope of the same spur as (18); it has been heavily ploughed. Diam. About 70 ft., ht. 2 ft.'

<2.1> Warne, C, 1866, The Celtic Tumuli of Dorset (1866), 14-15 (Monograph). SWX8166.

<3> Historic England, National Record of the Historic Environment, 205578 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Dec 30 2025 2:18PM