Monument record MDO5689 - Belle Vue Barrow, Hampreston, Ferndown Town

A bell barrow reported as having a mound about 65 feet in diameter and five feet high, surrounded with a berm 12 feet wide and encircled by a ditch about 10 feet wide. The barrow is visible on current Lidar imagery and was digitally plotted from this source by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

Belle Vue Barrow. A bell barrow, smothered in rhododendrons (1934) and measurements impossible. The mound is large (probably 20-25 paces in diameter) and the berm is fairly wide and definite. The ditch also is in good condition. <2> <3>

These barrows are so thickly covered with rhododendrons that measurements are still impossible, and those given are only very approximate:-
'A'. A bell barrow; the berm is difficult to see because of the bushes, but the mound is about 30.0m. in diameter and 1.7m. high. The ditch appears to be 2.5m. wide and 0.3m. deep. <4>

Belle Vue Barrow is still so called locally. A bell barrow, densely overgrown, consisting of a central mound 22.0m. in diameter and 0.5m. high and a berm 4.0m. wide and 1.0m. above the traceable but unsurveyable surrounding ditch. The overall diameter of the barrow (excluding ditch) is 35.0m.
The small bowl, 10.0m. in diameter and approximately 0.8m. high at SZ 07209853 is similarly overgrown with rhododendrons. OS 1:2500 (1959) surveys revised. <5>

SZ 07239856. Belle Vue Barrow - a bell barrow, thickly overgrown. The mound is about 65 feet in diameter and five feet high, with a berm 12 feet wide surrounded by a ditch 10 feet wide and 1 1/2 feet deep. <7-8>

The barrow is visible on current Lidar imagery <10>.

The feature is poorly defined but appears to comprise a mound 28m in diameter, with a possible flattened 'berm' around the south and west sides of this, up to 3m wide. Faint traces of an outer ditch are visible, except on the north side of the feature. The ditch appears to range between 1m and 2.5m in width, although the definition of this is quite poor.

The feature was digitally plotted fromcurrent Lidar imagery by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1927-38 (Map). SWX1540.

Belle Vue Barrow (Tumulus) (NR)

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

<3> Grinsell, L V, 1935-54, Dorset Barrows 1935-54 Manuscript (Unpublished document). SWX1556.

<4> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, 26/11/1955 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<5> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, 14/08/1973 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<6> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1971 (Map). SWX1540.

Belle Vue Barrow (NR)

<7> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), 30 (Monograph). SDO129.

'(43) Belle Vue Barrow, bell (07239856), S.E. of Holmwood Park and thickly overgrown; diam. of mound about 65 ft., ht. 5 ft., with a berm 12 ft. wide surrounded by a ditch 10 ft. wide and 1½ ft. deep.'

<8> 1978, List of ancient monuments in England: Volume 1, Northern England; Volume 2, Southern England; Volume 3, East Anglia and the Midlands Vol 2, 64 (Monograph). SWX2557.

<9> DCMS, 1997, Scheduled Monument Notification 1997, 06/08/1997 (Scheduling record). SDO17426.

<10> XX-XXX-2015, Environment Agency DTM Lidar 1m (Aerial Photograph). SDO15442.

<11> National Record of the Historic Environment, 457801 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Nov 14 2024 4:49PM