Monument record MDO6345 - Bowl barrow, one of the Oakley Down Group, Wimborne St Giles

A round barrow of a type known as a bowl barrow. This monument was reported in 1975 as being approximately twelve metres in diameter, and less than half a metre high. The mound was dug into by the antiquarians William Cunnington and Richard Colt Hoare in the early 19th century. They found that it had already been disturbed, but they found the remains of a primary cremation burial with charcoal and pottery.

A bowl barrow, part of the Oakley Down barrow group (SU 01 NW 19). It was described by RCHME as a plough-damaged mound 40 feet in diameter and 1 foot high. It was excavated in the early 19th century by Cunnington and Hoare (their barrow 21) who reported that it was "a small low barrow, in which we found a little cist full of charcoal very finely burned, and on the outside of it, some fragments of coarse pottery, and burned bone, which indicated a prior opening". More recently, Martin Green has reported finding pottery including sherds from a Deverel-Rimbury globular urn on the surface after ploughing. This might suggest that what Hoare found was evidence of secondary interments rather than previous disturbance?

Urn sherds found after ploughing. <1>

<1> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 145 (Monograph). SDO132.

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), 102 (Monograph). SDO129.

'(96) Bowl (01661704), (Hoare No. 21) yielded a primary cremation with charcoal and pottery in a cist, but it had been previously disturbed. The mound has been damaged by ploughing. Diam. 40 ft., ht. 1 ft.'

<3> Colt Hoare, Sir Richard, 1975, The ancient history of Wiltshire, 242 (Monograph). SDO18077.

<4> Grinsell, L V, 1982, Dorset Barrows Supplement, 54 (Monograph). SWX1703.

<5> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1312194 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Mar 7 2024 7:12PM