Monument record MDO5567 - Disc barrow, one of the Wyke Down Group, Gussage All Saints

A disc barrow, part of the Wyke Down Group of barrows. A description of the barrow in 1959 described it as having a mound measuring 30 feet in diameter and 6 inches in height, surrounded by a berm 30 feet wide, a ditch 15 feet wide and an outer bank 15 feet wide and 3 feet high but also observed that it was not very distinct. A later description of the barrow in 1975 described it as a cropmark ring ditch approximately 100 feet in diameter. Damaged by ploughing.

A disc barrow, part of the barrow group on Wyke Down (see SU 01 NW 35 and associated monuments). The disc barrow classification derives from Grinsell, who stated that the barrow was "on arable and not very distinct". RCHME noted its subsequent appearance on air photographs as a cropmark ring ditch circa 100 feet in diameter. Grinsell described the mound as measuring 30 feet in diameter and 6 inches in height, surrounded by a berm 30 feet wide, a ditch 15 feet wide and an outer bank 15 feet wide and 3 feet high. <1, 2>

NB this barrow was formerly recorded as part of SU 01 NW 35.

<1> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 168 (Monograph). SDO132.

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), 21 (Monograph). SDO129.

'Wyke Down Group comprises seventeen barrows including at least one disc barrow and one bell barrow, in a compact cluster on the gentle S. slope of the down, about 250 ft. above O.D. (Plate 48). All have been damaged by ploughing, most of them severely, and some are visible only on air photographs (58/RAF/3250; 0086; C.U.A.P., NK 4, YN 28; N.M.R. 9609/1: SU/0015/1/327). (41) Bowl (00741537), possibly a disc barrow (Dorset Barrows, 168; Gussage All Saints 25c), now appears on air photographs as a ring-ditch about 100 ft. in diam'.

<3> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1313047 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Oct 25 2022 11:40AM