Monument record MDO6627 - Bowl barrow, one of the Ridgeway Hill Group, Weymouth

A bowl barrow 31m 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.

Round barrows on Ridgeway Hill : 'G' Bowl (67078590) 70 yds. E. of 'E'. Diam. 67 ft., ht. 5 ft. Cut on W. by track on line of Roman road. <1> <3>

Rim fragment of an enlarged food vessel, damaged by ploughing, were found by students of Weymouth College of Education while surveying the round barrow at SY67078590 (barrow G; Grinsells Bincombe 36) in November 1968, about 3m from the centre. An attempt to excavate the remainder of the vessel was unsuccessful as, together with the ashes, it had been scattered over several metres by the plough. The only identifiable bone fragment was the crown of a human molar. The sherds of the vessel are now in Dorset County Museum. The barrow "has a patchy surface showing many changes of colour" suggesting "its use either as a Late Bronze Age cremation cemetry, or extensive and haphazard excavation in more recent times". <4>

'G' SY 67068590. Bowl barrow in arable, truncated by a track and fence. Diameter 31.0m, height 1.8m. No visible ditch. 'A', 'C', 'D', 'E' and 'G' re-surveyed at 1:2500 on MSD. <5>

A bowl barrow 31m 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. <8>

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

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

(Centred SY 669859) 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, 456 (Monograph). SDO150.

'(R.8) RIDGEWAY HILL GROUP (SY 68 NE). Twenty-one barrows, about 300 yds. S.E. of the E. end of Group R.7, strung irregularly along the broad Ridgeway top here running over and between two rises defined by 500 ft. ring contours. The W. part of the group is in Weymouth, the E. in Bincombe, amongst Ancient 'Field Group (7). Most of the barrows have been damaged by ploughing and excavation: eleven, opened in the 19th century cannot now be identified, but three of Warne's excavations can probably be located (Weymouth (412–14); see also Archaeologia xxx (1844), 333, nos. 13–15). … Weymouth: (415) Bowl (67078590) 70 yds. E. of (414). Diam. 67 ft., ht. 5 ft. Cut on W. by track on line of Roman road. '

<4> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1970, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1969, 176-177 (Serial). SDO69.

<5> Barton, J G, Various, Field Investigators Comments JGB, F1 JGB 21-APR-80 (Unpublished document). SDO11900.

<6> Papworth, M, 1983, The South Dorset Ridgeway Project: condition and management survey, SDR 453 (Index). SDO12304.

Diameter 31.0m, ht. 1.8m. Barrow is ploughed in a field of ley pasture. Reduced and spread. Calkin food vessel found by students on barrow, remains scattered. Ruin sherd of enlarged food vessel and crown of 3rd molar of adult (15-25), ploughed out of the mound. 1/3/C

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

<8> 26-MAR-1968, NMR SY6785/4 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11846.

<9> National Record of the Historic Environment, 452014 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Dec 22 2023 7:31PM