Monument record MDO5586 - Bowl barrow, one of the Handley Hill Group, Gussage All Saints

Round barrow of a type known as a bowl barrow. Probably the Berendes beorh of an Anglo Saxon charter that was concerned with the boundaries of Handley. In 1975 the RCHME described the mound as 95 feet in diameter and 9 feet high. It is probably to be identified with a barrow opened circa 1800 by Cunnington who found a cremation burial within a circular pit.

A bowl barrow, part of a group on Handley Hill (see SU 01 NW 28 and associated monuments). It was described by RCHME as a mound 95 feet in diameter and 9 feet high. It lies on the boundary with Sixpenny Handley, and has been identified with "Berendes beorh", mentioned in an Anglo-Saxon charter dealing with the boundaries of Handley. It is also probably to be identified with a barrow opened circa 1800 by Cunnington, who found an urn covered with large quantities of ashes and charred wood, placed within a circular pit.

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1937, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1936, 116-119 (Serial). SDO39.

<2> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 110 (Monograph). SDO132.

<3> Colt Hoare, Sir Richard, 1975, The ancient history of Wiltshire, 243 (Monograph). SDO18077.

<4> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), 22 (Monograph). SDO129.

'(62) Bowl (01391626(, some 30 yds. N.E. of (61), is probably the Berendes beorh of an Anglo-Saxon charter concerned with the boundaries of Handley (Dorset Procs., 68 (1936), 116). Almost certainly it is the barrow opened by Cunnington, c. 1800, wherein at a considerable depth he found an urn covered with large quantities of ashes and charred wood, within a circular cist. It is 95 ft. in diameter and 9 ft. high.'

<5> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1312943 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Nov 24 2022 2:24PM