Monument record MDO6610 - Bowl barrow, one of the Ridge Hill Group, Weymouth

A bowl barrow 32m in diameter is visible on aerial photographs {1} as a cropmark ring ditch with an internal bank and central pit/ hollow. The site was digitally plotted during the South Dorset Ridgeway Mapping Project.

Barrows on Ridgeway Hill : 'A. Bowl (?) (65338658). Diam. About 60 ft. Ploughed almost flat. <1> <3>

'A' SY 65308659 Bowl barrow, diameter approximately 20.0m, height 0.5m. This appears to be the barrow published on OS 25" as
"Site of" (SY 65308658) (see SY 68 NE 60). All the barrows are in arable and none of them has a visible ditch. Re-surveyed at 1:2500 on MSD.

The barrow depicted on OS 25" at SY 65388657 is not visible, and is described by RCHM. It is not clear whether a barrow ever existed here. <4>

A bowl barrow 32m in diameter is visible on aerial photographs <7> as a cropmark ring ditch with an internal bank and central pit/ hollow. The site was digitally plotted during the South Dorset Ridgeway Mapping Project.

<1> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 140-141 (Monograph). SDO132.

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

(Centred at SY 65398657) Tumuli (NR)

<3> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 467 (Monograph). SDO150.

'(R.7) RIDGE HILL GROUP (SY 68 NW, NE). Thirty-eight barrows including one bell, four probable bells, one very large bell-disc barrow and one pond barrow, many of them having survived intact in an area extensively covered with 'Celtic' fields (see Ancient Field Group (6), and Fig. p. 626). Ridge Hill continues the Ridgeway to the E. for the next 1¾ miles to the great Ridgeway bell-disc barrow (67). The Ridgeway here is domed on top, and the barrows lie in an irregular line, mostly on the highest ground. The group includes Portesham (41–2), Weymouth (396–406) and Bincombe (13–21). Weymouth (396–404) have all been heavily ploughed and six of them were opened by E. Cunnington between 1884 and 1888, including (403), his 'Ridgeway 7'. … (397) Bowl (?) (65338658) 40 yds. E.S.E. of (396). Diam. about 60 ft. Ploughed almost flat. '

<4> Barton, J G, Various, Field Investigators Comments JGB, F1 JGB 16-MAY-80 (Unpublished document). SDO11900.

<5> Papworth, M, 1983, The South Dorset Ridgeway Project: condition and management survey, SDR 384 (Index). SDO12304.

Diameter 20.0m, ht. 0.5m. In arable, no visible ditch. Presents an even profile but reduced and spread by ploughing. 1/5/D

<6> Wessex Archaeology, 2011, South Dorset Ridgeway Barrow Survey 2010 (Unpublished document). SDO12407.

<7> 26-MAR-1968, NMR SY6586/2 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11838.

<8> National Record of the Historic Environment, 452036 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jan 11 2024 12:32PM