Monument record MDO6090 - Bowl Barrow in Calcots Wood, Sixpenny Handley

Barrow excavated 1884, when it was found to have a ditch 8ft wide by 3ft deep. Nothing was found but a flint scraper, flint flakes and some traces of charcoal, and it was thought the barrow had been previously excavated. Some Romano-British pottery was found in the barrow and the ditch. <1>

Bowl barrow 12.0m diameter by 1.2m high with an excavation trench across the centre. No ditch is visible on the W half of the barrow, but on the E, where it has been excavated, it is now 1.7m wide by 0.8m deep. <2>

Bowl barrow 35ft in diameter by 2ft high. <5>

Bowl barrow in Calcots Wood. Scheduling affirmed. <6>

Bowl barrow in Chalkpits Coppice, Rushmore Park excavated by Pitt Rivers on September 15th 1884, and by persons unknown sometime earlier. Pitt Rivers' barrow xix (RCHME's Sixpenny Handley 41, Grinsell's Handley 12), it is extant as a mound 12 metres in diameter and 1.2 metres high, with a surrounding ditch visible on the eastern side only, and an excavation trench visible across the centre of the mound. When Pitt Rivers excavated the barrow, it was extant as a mound 36 feet in diameter and up to 3 feet high. The surrounding ditch was found by excavation (Pitt Rivers record in spotting ditches prior to excavation is a little patchy) and measured circa 8 feet wide by 3 feet deep. No human remains were found. Finds from the mound included 3 flint scrapers and several flint flakes, plus some charcoal. A few sherds of pottery, probably Roman, were found in the ditch. Prior to excavation, Pitt Rivers noted "a considerable depression at the top, which gave rise to the suspicion that it had been previously opened". <7>

<1> Pitt Rivers, A H L F, 1888, Excavations in Barrows near Rushmore. Excavations in the Romano-British village Rotherly. Excavations in Cranborne Chase vol II Rushmore, 5, 19, 36-7 (Monograph). SDO16665.

<2> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, F1 NVQ 08-APR-54 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<3> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 113 (Monograph). SDO132.

<4> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1963 (Map). SWX1540.

(ST 95601738) Tumulus (NR)

<5> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), 72 (Monograph). SDO129.

‘Twenty-seven round barrows, several damaged or levelled by ploughing, have been recorded in the parish. Many have been excavated, most of them by General Pitt-Rivers, but very few completely. Pitt-Rivers reconstituted the barrows which he dug. … (41) Bowl (95611738), in Calcots Wood, close to the boundary with Wiltshire; diam. 35 ft., ht. 2 ft. Pitt-Rivers found no burials in the mound, which appeared to have been opened previously (Excavations II (1888), 5, 37).’

<6> Historic England, Scheduled Monument Notification, 18-Sep-01 (Scheduling record). SDO17468.

<7> National Record of the Historic Environment, 209782 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Sep 5 2024 4:08PM