Monument record MDO6095 - Bowl Barrow one of the Scrubbity Barrows, Sixpenny Handley

A bowl barrow excavated by Pitt-Rivers who found a cremation burial and what he described as a large grave with nothing in it. In 1975 this monument was desribed as an earthwork around 37 feet in diameter with a mound 3 feet high.

A bowl barrow in Scrubbity Coppice, one of a group excavated by Pitt Rivers in 1882-83. Pitt Rivers' barrow xii (RCHME's Sixpenny Handley 46, Grinsell's Handley 4), it was excavated on January 16th 1883. Surrounded by three smaller mounds (ST 91 NE 94, 96, and 100), prior to excavation it was visible as a mound 45 feet in diameter and up to 3 feet high. Pitt Rivers' trench showed it to be surrounded by a ditch 6 feet wide at the top. Beneath the centre of the pit was a large sub-rectangular pit, orientated east-west and measuring 12 feet by 9 feet across, and dug 5 feet into the natural chalk. No finds were made in the pit, which was filled with "a light brown mould", a mound of which also covered the pit to a maximum height of 1 foot 9 inches. This was covered by a deposit of flints, the barrow mound being completed by a layer of earth. Immediately adjacent to the eastern edge of the pit was an unaccompanied cremation deposit. A Beaker sherd plus over 200 flints, mostly flakes and cores, were found in the mound, while 4 sherds of pottery and a flint axehead were found in the ditch. Prior to excavation, Pitt rivers noted a depression in the top of the mound, suggesting that it had been subject to an earlier unrecorded episode of "excavation". He also suggested that the adjacent mound ST 91 NE 100 may in fact represent spoil from this excavation and not a barrow. [NB this site was formerly described as part of ST 91 NE 17. That record should be consulted for some additional information and sources] <4>

<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, 3-5, 32-44 (Monograph). SDO16665.

<2> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 113 (Monograph). SDO132.

<3> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1972, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume IV (North), 72 (Monograph). SDO99.

‘Scrubbity Barrows (43-50), a group of eight, lie on the S.W. slope of a dry valley in woodland between Woodcutts Common and Handley Common; all were excavated, but most only partially, by Pitt-Rivers (Excavations II (1888), 3-5, 32-44) … (46) Bowl (97211788), (Pitt-Rivers xii) contained a cremation burial and, beneath, a large grave 12 ft. by 9 ft. by 5 ft. deep, with nothing in it. Diam. 37 ft., ht. 3 ft.'

<4> National Record of the Historic Environment, 131093 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Sep 3 2022 3:24PM