Monument record MDO7104 - Bronze Age bell barrow, Bere Regis/Turners Puddle

A Bronze Age bell barrow, is visible as an earthwork on lidar imagery adjacent to Blackhill Clump, on the parish boundary between Bere Regis and Turners Puddle.

A very large bell-barrow with berm raised about 6 ft, and mound 5 ft above that. The berm is encircled by a tree ring, which is actually on the berm on the north east. <2>

The barrow has a diameter of 17.0 metres and a height of 1.7 metres and has been mutilated in the western quadrant by a military slit trench. The berm is 8.0 metres wide and 1.8 metres high and is encircled by a tree ring which, as stated, is actually on the berm in the north east quadrant. A large and
irregular ditch in the south and south east quadrants is 10.5 metres wide and 1.1 metres deep. It may not be contemporary with the barrow. There is no ditch in the northern or western quadrants. The barrow is heavily overgrown with fern and some coniferous trees. A bell barrow. <3>

The ditch mentioned above has clean cut sides with no traces of silting or weathering. It appears to be of far later construction than the tumulus and is probably contemporary with the gravel digging which, in this particular area, has been considerable. <4>

SY 8405 9370. Bell (?) barrow at Blackhill Clump has a mound 62 ft diameter and 5ft high with berm (?) and ditch. The outer bank, 110ft diameter which is destroyed on the south west, is probably a tree-clump enclosure. <5>

SY 84059369. A probable bell barrow, situated upon a conifer covered knoll which has been subjected to extensive gravel working.

A mound 20m. In diameter and from 1.0m. To 1.6m. High is encompassed by a platform 8.0m. Wide and 0.3m. To 0.5m. High on the NW and SW. Elsewhere it has been accentuated by gravel diggings up to 2.3m. Deep. Traces of a spread bank 0.2m. High form a rim to the berm on the N. and S.E., probably the tree ring referred to by Grinsell and the R.C.H.M.

It is uncertain whether a fragmentary outer ditch, 0.1m. Deep, visible in the N.W. and N.E. is an original feature or has reulted from the construction of the tree ring. The ditch may have become completely silted, for in the S.W. there is now simply a terrace between the base of the berm and the natural
hill-slope. Surveyed at 1:2500 on M.S.D. and at 1:1000 (see plan). <6>

A Bronze Age bell barrow, is visible as an earthwork on lidar imagery adjacent to Blackhill Clump, on the parish boundary between Bere Regis and Turners Puddle. The barrow is formed of a sub-circular mound measuring 32 m in diameter. A sub-oval depression in the centre may be the result of a past excavation. <7> This feature was digitally plotted as part of the Wild Purbeck Mapping Project.

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1902 (Map). SWX1540.

(SY 8405 9369) Tumulus (NR)

<2> Grinsell, L V, 1935-54, Dorset Barrows 1935-54 Manuscript (Unpublished document). SWX1556.

<3> Rigg, J, Field Investigators Comments JR, F1 JR 15-SEP-52 (Unpublished document). SWX1255.

<4> Colquhoun, F D, Field Investigators Comments FDC, F2 FDC 04-JAN-53 (Unpublished document). SWX2609.

<5> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 436 (Monograph). SDO150.

‘(75) Bell (?) (SY 89 SW; 84059370) at Blackhill Clump on S. end of ridge above 300 ft. and on parish boundary with Turners Puddle. Diam. of mound 62 ft., ht. 5 ft., with berm (?) and ditch; outer bank 110 ft. in diam., destroyed on S.W., probably a tree-clump enclosure.’

<6> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, F3 NVQ 24-FEB-81 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<7> Environment Agency, 2010, Lidar DTM (Aerial Photograph). SDO13148.

<8> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/093 RCHME Inventory: Dorset II (South-East) (Unpublished document). SDO17434.

<9> National Record of the Historic Environment, 456235 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Oct 9 2024 4:55PM