Monument record MDO5620 - Bowl barrow on Week Street Down, Gussage St Michael

A Bronze Age round barrow of a type known as a bowl barrow. Situated on Week Street Down. In 1975 RCHME recorded the barrow as a mound 35 feet in diameter and less than 1 foot high. This may have been one of the barrows opened by Warne in 1848.

Eight barrows (A-H) are scatterd over the E. slopes of Week Street Down between 220 ft., and 280 ft. above O.D. All have been greatly reduced by heavy ploughing. They were probably all opened by Warne in 1848, but it is not possible to correlate his account with individual barrows. From the barrows excavated he recorded the following: No 15, a primary inhumation and a secondary cremation in a cist; No. 16, two secondary or intrusive inhumations; No. 17, a very low mound, a primary crouched inhumation; No. 18, an urn from the centre and a secondary cremation to the N.W. with remains of a small urn; No. 19, six cremations in cists, two with fragments of urns; No. 20, a cremation with pottery in a cist, and a large urn containing a cremation; No. 21 no finds.

(B) Bowl (96831292); diam. 35 ft., ht. under l ft. <3>

ST 9696 1328. At least 3 cremations on Week Street Down were ploughed out in 1970. One was in a plain bucket-urn; the others were probable urn sherds, one fingertip-decorated. Part of a Deverel-Rimbury Cemetery? <4>

ST 97081293. Additional barrow, seen as a soil mark by Mr M Green. Diameter 12m. <5-6>

<1> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 112 (Monograph). SDO132.

<2> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1963 (Map). SWX1540.

(Centred ST 968130) Tumulus (NR) (4 times) Tumuli (NR)

<3> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), 26 (Monograph). SDO129.

'Eight barrows (18-25) are scattered over the E. slopes of Week Street Down between 220 ft., and 280 ft. above O.D. All have been greatly reduced by heavy ploughing. They were probably all opened by Warne in 1848, but it is not possible to correlate his account with individual barrows (C.T.D., Pt. I, Nos. 15-21). From the barrows excavated he recorded the following: No. 15, a primary inhumation and a secondary cremation in a cist; No. 16, two secondary or intrusive inhumations; No. 17, a very low mound, a primary crouched inhumation; No. 18, an urn from the centre and a secondary cremation to the N.W. with remains of a small urn; No. 19, six cremations in cists, two with fragments of urns; No. 20, a cremation with pottery in a cist, and a large urn containing a cremation; No. 21, no finds. … (19) Bowl (96831292); diam. 35 ft., ht. under 1 ft.'

<4> Grinsell, L V, 1982, Dorset Barrows Supplement, 40 (Monograph). SWX1703.

<5> Bowen, H C, 1990, The Archaeology of Bokerley Dyke (Monograph). SWX800.

<6> Bowen, H C, 1991, The Archaeology of Bokerley Dyke: Inventory (Monograph). SDO14864.

<7> National Record of the Historic Environment, 210072 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

<8> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1302928 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Mar 7 2024 4:31PM