Monument record MDO6369 - Bowl barrow, Oakley Down Group, Wimborne St Giles

Bowl barrow forming part of the Oakley Down Group, immediately south of the A354. In 1975 the RCHME reported that the monument had a diameter of 45 feet and a surviving height of 4 feet. A primary crouched interment was found below the mound, and an intrusive Saxon inhumation was found near the surface.

A bowl barrow, part of the barrow group on Oakley Down (SU 01 NW 19). It was described by RCHME as a mound 45 feet in diameter and 4 feet high. The mound is cut on the north western side by the A354. The barrow was dug into in the early 19th century by Cunnington and Hoare (their barrow 1). They found a primary burial comprising a crouched inhumation of "a tall and stout man" some ten feet below the surface of the chalk. Within the mound itself, at a depth of just over two feet, they found an intrusive Saxon inhumation comprising the extended skeleton of an adult female accompanied by numerous glass and amber beads, and a gilt bronze brooch. Some of these objects are in Devizes Museum.

[Note: the intrusive Saxon inhumation burial is recorded separately as MDO6370.]

The primary interment was crouched, and reported to be found at a depth of 10 feet. <1, 3>

<1> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 143 (Monograph). SDO132.

<2> Colt Hoare, Sir Richard, 1975, The ancient history of Wiltshire, 236-7 (Monograph). SDO18077.

<3> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), 103-104 (Monograph). SDO129.

‘(120) Bowl (02021756), (Hoare No. 1), damaged on the N.W. side by the modern road, yielded a primary crouched interment at a depth of 10 ft. Near the surface was an intrusive pagan Saxon female inhumation accompaned by a gilt button-brooch, beads of glass and amber, two bronze rings and fragments of iron (Devizes Mus. Cat., 1896, pp. 53, 54, 59). Diam. 45 ft., ht. 4 ft.’

<4> Society of Antiquaries of London, 1982, Archaeologia 107, 107, Avent, R and Evans, VI (Serial). SDO17747.

<5> Bowen, H C, 1990, The Archaeology of Bokerley Dyke (Monograph). SWX800.

<6> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1312546 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jul 29 2024 3:22PM