Monument record MDO6618 - Bowl barrow, one of the Ridge Hill Group, Weymouth

A bowl barrow 25m in diameter is visible on aerial photographs as a cropmark bank. The site was digitally plotted during the South Dorset Ridgeway Mapping Project.

Bowl barrow 60 feet indiameter by 2 1/2 feet high.

It was opened in 1884 by Cunnington who found two chalk cut graves lined and covered with stones, each containing an inhumation, one with two plain urns. The graves lay within a "circle" of twenty two stones, 10 feet in diameter with a gap 8 feet wide on the south east. (1-3, 5)

SY 66498638 Bowl barrow in arable, ploughed. Diameter 24.0m approximately, height 0.8m. No visible ditch. Resurveyed at 1:2500 on MSD. (6)

A bowl barrow 25m in diameter is visible on aerial photographs {9} as a cropmark bank. The site was digitally plotted during the South Dorset Ridgeway Mapping Project.

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1916, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club for 1916, 44 (Serial). SDO25.

No 29 (No 1 on plan)

<2> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1937, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1936, Location map opp 20 (Barrow No 1) (Serial). SDO39.

<3> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 141 (Monograph). SDO132.

<4> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1963 (Map). SWX1540.

(SY 66498638) Tumulus (NR)

<5> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 468 (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). … (405) Bowl (66498639) 100 yds. S.W. of last. Diam. 60 ft., ht. 2½ ft. Opened in 1884 by Cunnington who found two chalk-cut graves, lined and covered with stones, each containing an inhumation, one with two plain urns. The graves lay within a 'circle' of twenty-two stones, 10 ft. in diam., with a gap 8 ft. wide on the S.E. '

<6> Barton, J G, Various, Field Investigators Comments JGB, F1 JGB 21-MAY-80 (Unpublished document). SDO11900.

<7> Papworth, M, 1983, The South Dorset Ridgeway Project: condition and management survey, SDR 404 (Index). SDO12304.

Diameter 24.0m, ht. 0.8m. No visible ditch. In grass. Field of ley pasture. Low rise. 1/3/C

<8> Wessex Archaeology, 2011, South Dorset Ridgeway Barrow Survey 2010 (Unpublished document). SDO12407.

<9> Royal Air Force, 17-JAN-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1934 1061-3 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11826.

<10> National Record of the Historic Environment, 452145 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jan 22 2025 12:52PM