Monument record MDO6613 - Bowl barrow, one of the Ridge Hill Group, Weymouth

A bowl barrow 38m in diameter is visible on aerial photographs 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 : 'D'. Bowl (65438661) 55 yds. N.E. of 'C'. Diam. 104 ft., ht. 5 1/2 ft. Contained incomplete inhumation under cairn 8 ft. to 10 ft. in diam. and 3 ft. high, on edge of pre-existing 'pond'. Probably associated were an inverted beaker, a flint scraper and two fragments of saddle querns. <1-2> <4>

'D' SY 65418661 Bowl barrow, diameter 38.0m, height 3.4m. 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. <5>

A bowl barrow 30m in diameter is visible on aerial photographs <8> 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> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1959, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1958, Map opposite p 20 (Serial). SDO58.

<2> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 140-141 (Monograph). SDO132.

<3> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1963 (Map). SWX1540.

(Centred at SY 65398657) Tumuli (NR)

<4> 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'. … (400) Bowl (65438661) 55 yds. N.E. of (399). Diam. 104 ft., ht. 5½ ft. Contained incomplete inhumation under cairn 8 ft. to 10 ft. in diam. and 3 ft. high, on edge of pre-existing 'pond'. Probably associated were an inverted beaker, a flint scraper and two fragments of saddle querns.'

<5> Barton, J G, Various, Field Investigators Comments JGB, F1 JGB 16-MAY-80 (Unpublished document). SDO11900.

<6> Papworth, M, 1983, The South Dorset Ridgeway Project: condition and management survey, SDR 387 (Index). SDO12304.

Diameter 38.0m, ht. 3.4m. Even profile. In arable.

<7> Wessex Archaeology, 2011, South Dorset Ridgeway Barrow Survey 2010 (Unpublished document). SDO12407.

<8> 26-MAR-1968, NMR SY6586/2 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11838.

<9> National Record of the Historic Environment, 452036 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jan 11 2024 12:33PM