Monument record MDO6008 - Bowl barrow, one of the Badbury Barrow Group, Shapwick

A Bronze Age bowl barrow. In 1975 this monument was reported as being around 90 feet in diameter, with a mound 5 feet high. Aerial photographs suggest the presence of a central pit. The barrow is visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs and was digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour Catchment AI&M Project. The record for this monument has been enhanced with support from Wessex Water.

Bowl barrow 32 paces in diameter by 5 ft high, enclosed in ring of chalk. <1>

Barrow cut on the W side Swan Lane. Re-surveyed at 1:2500. <2>

Heavily ploughed bowl barrow. Air photographs suggest a central pit. <3>

The site of a ploughed out Bronze Age round barrow is visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs <6> and was digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour Catchment AI&M Project. It appears as a partial ring ditch 35m across which is cut on it's western side by a modern field boundary. A large pit is visible in the centre of the mound which may not be original but due to robbing in antiquity.

<1> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 129 (Monograph). SDO132.

Arable, enclosed in ring of chalk.

<2> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, F1 NVQ 25-MAR-54 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<3> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), 63 (Monograph). SDO129.

'(43) Bowl (94780342), 100 yds. S. of (42); former diam. 90 ft., ht. 5 ft. Air photographs suggest a central pit.'

<3.1> St Joseph, J K, NMR ST 9403/1 CUAP AQY 95 (Aerial Photograph). SDO19363.

<4> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey 1:10,000 scale map, 1978 (Map). SDO17396.

(ST 94770342) Tumulus (NR)

<5> Papworth, M, 1994, Shapwick Parish, Kingston Lacy Estate, Wessex Region (Unpublished document). SDO14228.

A barrow visible as a prominent rise cut on the west by the Swan Way. Originally it appears to have been oval in plan. It now measures 28.5m north to south and 32m east to west and 1m high. It is visible on aerial photograph NMR ST9403/1. The top of the mound has dark soil surrounded by an uneven spread of chalky soil. Surrounding this is a band of dark soil indicating a ditch. The site lies on a south-east slope. Oval barrows are sometimes found to be Neolithic in date which may give this site added significance.

<6> J R Boyden, 01-APR-1966, JRB 10/41 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18320.

<7> National Record of the Historic Environment, 209615 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Oct 7 2024 1:57PM