Monument record MDO6347 - Bowl barrow, one of the Oakley Down Group, Wimborne St Giles

A round barrow of a type known as a bowl barrow. In 1975 this monument was reported as being around twenty two metres in diameter and two metres high. The mound was dug into by the antiquarian Richard Colt Hoare, who found a primary crouched burial with piece of deer antler with a hole made through it. More recent excavations found two secondary cremation burials in urns, and the remains of an inhumation burial just below the surface of the mound.

A bowl barrow, part of the Oakley Down barrow group (SU 01 NW 19). It was described by RCHME as a mound 70 feet in diameter and 7 feet high. It was excavated in the early 19th century by Cunnington and Hoare (their barrow 18), who described it as "a large circular bowl-shaped barrow, ditched round. At the depth of seven feet and a half, and on the floor, lay a skeleton with its head to the north-east, and its legs and thighs drawn up close together. The skull was pressed flat, and near it lay part of a deer's horn, perforated in the stem...". The perforated antler is in Devizes Museum. In 1941, two secondary cremations were found. Each was in an urn lying on its side just below the surface. One was covered by 5 or 6 large flints. Nearby, in 1949, an unaccompanied inhumation was found, also just below the surface of the mound.

Primary crouched interment, head to NE with perforated antler. Two secondary cremations in Late Bronze Age urns lying on their sides with a large layer of flints over one were found just below the surface in 1941, and nearby in 1949 an apparently unaccompanied inhumation of a young person. <1>

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1951, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1950, 91-92 (Serial). SDO50.

<2> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 144 (Monograph). SDO132.

<3> Annable, F K, and Simpson, D D A, 1964, A guide catalogue of the Neolithic and Bronze Age collections in Devizes museum, 57, 112, No. 406 (Unpublished document). SDO18620.

<4> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), 102 (Monograph). SDO129.

'(98) Bowl (01761704), (Hoare No. 18) yielded a primary crouched interment associated with a perforated deer antler (Devizes Mus. Cat. 1896, No. 198). More recently, two secondary cremations in urns and an unaccompanied inhumation have been found just below the surface of the mound (Dorset Procs., 72 (1950), 92). Diam. 70 ft., ht. 7 ft.'

<5> Colt Hoare, Sir Richard, 1975, The ancient history of Wiltshire, 242 (Monograph). SDO18077.

<6> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1312244 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Sep 12 2024 10:34AM