Monument record MDO5733 - Round barrow, one of the High Lea Farm Group, Hinton Martell

One of a loose cluster of at least ten round barrows visible as slight earthworks and crop marks on aerial photographs. In 1975 this monument was recorded as being around 35 feet in diameter and ploughed flat. The barrow was digitally plotted during the Dorset Stour NMP.

A rapid examination of air photography suggests the presence of at least 14 possible additional barrows, of Prehistoric or Roman date, visible as ring ditch cropmarks at:- ST 9996 0645, ST 9999 0642, SU 0004 0645, SU 0003 0641, SU 0008 0643, SU 0012 0642, SU 0010 0640, SU 0008 0638 (double), SU 0004 0634, SU 0019 0637, SU 0024 0637, SU 0022 0628, SU 0016 0623 and SU 0014 0622. <2>

NMR ST 9906/1 was probably a vertical photograph and is no longer accessible through that number. Recent aerial photography reveals further Prehistoric or Roman round and oval barrows, ranging from c.6m to c.30m in diameter (the oval barrow is c.30mx15m) and visible at ST 9995 0584, ST 9983 0590, ST 9981 0593, ST 9983 0598, ST 9986 0598, ST 9993 0610, ST 9993 0610, ST 9991 0610, ST 9992 0609, ST 9989 0612 and ST 9989 0606 (the oval barrow). Further possible round barrow sites are visible as light maculae around ST 998 056 and ST 998 055. <3>

A Bronze Age round barrow is visible as cropmarks and was digitally plotted from aerial photographs during the Dorset Stour NMP <4>. It is one of at least ten barrows known as the High Lea Farm group. The ring ditch is 14m across with no traces of an internal bank.

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), 31 (Monograph). SDO129.

‘High Lea Farm Group comprises at least ten barrows sited in a field, about 135 ft. above O.D., on a gentle N.W. slope falling to the R. Allen. Only (17) and (26) survive as earthworks; the others form a scatter in the same field and are visible as soil-marks on air photographs (N.M.R., ST 9906/1). . . . (18) Barrow (00020612), 100 yds. E. of (17); diam. about 35 ft.’

<2> Miller, Andrew, 1993, RCHME: AP Primary Recording Project (Unpublished document). SWX1708.

<2.1> NMR 4437: 03-7 (Aerial Photograph). SDO19349.

<2.2> NMR 4527: 15-6, 18 (Aerial Photograph). SDO19348.

<3> 1996, RCHME Aerial Reconnaissance (Aerial Photograph). SWX3189.

<3.1> NMR ST 9905/9-13 (Aerial Photograph). SDO19346.

<3.2> ST 9906/5-9 (Aerial Photograph). SDO19347.

<4> Ordnance Survey, 05-MAY-1989, OS/89135 V 385-6 (Aerial Photograph). SDO15720.

<5> National Record of the Historic Environment, 213043 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Feb 3 2023 3:05PM