Monument record MDO6307 - Bowl barrow, one of the Drive Plantation Group, Wimborne St Giles

A round barrow of a type known as a bowl barrow, and situated on the parish boundary between Wimborne St Giles and Gussage All Saints. In 1975 this monument was reported as being about twenty metres in diameter and less than half a metre high, having been much reduced by ploughing. Visible as a cropmark with an outer ring ditch, an inner interrupted ditch and central pit.

('A': SU 01281468 Tumuli (NR). <2>

(Centred SU 013146) Four round barrows, all levelled by ploughing. <3>
'A' was 22 paces in diameter by 2 feet high when seen by Grinsell, and consisted of a core of mould enclosed in a chalk circle.

A rapid examination of air photography <4.1, 4.2> suggests that the barrow group includes a possible five more barrow sites, of Prehistoric or Roman date, visible as ring ditch cropmarks. However, some of these new barrows (and 'D' of the existing group) may well be long barrows, of Neolithic date.

A - visible as an outer ring ditch, an inner interrupted ditch and central pit. <4>

<1> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 146 (Monograph). SDO132.

<2> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1963 (Map). SWX1540.

<3> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), 101 (Monograph). SDO129.

'(59) Bowl (01281468), against the parish boundary with Gussage All Saints; former dimensions: diam. 65 ft., ht. 2 ft.'

<3.1> National Monuments Record, NMR SU 0015/6 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18680.

<4> Miller, Andrew, RCHME/EH/HE Aerial Photographers comment AM, 08-FEB-1993 (Verbal communication). SDO17356.

<4.1> National Monuments Record, NMR 4509: 48-51, 55, 62, 65 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18681.

<4.2> National Monuments Record, NMR 4443: 31-4 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18682.

<5> National Monuments Record, NMR 15829/19-22 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18678.

<6> National Monuments Record, NMR 15810/32-36 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18679.

<7> National Record of the Historic Environment, 213785 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Oct 18 2022 1:06PM