Monument record MDO7127 - Bowl barrow, one of the Roke Down Group, Bere Regis

A bowl barrow on a ridge, and situated in the corner of a prehistoric field. In 1970 this monument was described as around 57 feet in diameter with a mound 2½ feet high. This barrow is thought to have been the object of antiquarian investigation. The site is visible as a cropmark double ring ditch on aerial photographs and was digitally recorded during the Dorset Upper Cerne and Piddle AIM Project. Traces of an internal mound are visible as low earthworks on lidar imagery.

Two round barrows on Roke Down. 'B' (98) SY 82709683 Bowl barrow, 57ft diameter and 2 1/2ft high at 'Celtic' field angle. <2-3>

SY 825974-825967 Three round barrows NW of Millum Head. Scheduled. (It seems likely that the tumulus at 'B' SY 82709683 (see above) is one of the three scheduled barrows and the tumuli at SY 82639668 - see SY 89 NW 30 and SY 82569727 - see SY 89 NW 34 are the others). <4>

'B'. SY 82699683. Bowl barrow in arable. Diameter 24.0 metres approximately, height 1.2 metres maximum. 'B' resurveyed at 1:2500 on M.S.D.
A large sarsen block, measuring 1.2 by 1.0 by 0.7 metres, lies by the hedge 43.0 metres north-west of 'B'.<5>

A rapid examination of air photography ... Also visible are barrows 'A' and 'B', as double (concentric) ring ditches. <6>

Scheduling revised 09/03/01. A group of three bowl barrows forming part of a wider group of 11, which together form a round barrow cemetery on Roke Down. One of the group was excavated in 1840 and later, and these investigations revealed sarsen stones on top of the mound and a cist within it. <8>



(D) ROKE DOWN GROUP (SY 89 NW), six barrows in two clusters of three, the westernmost including two probable bells. In arable on S. slopes of Down near 200 ft. contour; all except (96) among 'Celtic' fields with (93-5) probably at field angles (see Ancient Field Group (30)). All have probably been opened. Accounts exist of six excavations hereabouts but only one can be related with certainty to a specific barrow (97), though the account in Hutchins of even this is confused (Hutchins I, 143-4; Warne, C.T.D., cpf, no. 2 and 17 n; Payne, Durden Catalogue (1892), 12-18; Abercromby II, 39 and fig. 375; Ant. J. XIII (1933), 443).

A barrow 'on the upper part of Roke Down' (LVG 46a; Warne, C.T.D., cpf, no.2) contained a cremation, probably primary, in an inverted urn in a grave 3 ft. deep. In the mound near the centre were four cremations in bucket urns, of which three were inverted. Immediately above three extended inhumations lay E.-W. and a similar inhumation, with a plain urn, came from the S. side of the mound. A sixth cremation, in a very small urn, lay just below the turf on the SE.

A barrow (LVG 46b) a few yards to the E. contained two primary contracted inhumations. One lay in a grave 6 ft. long, 2 ft. wide and 2 ft. deep, accompanied by a cremation in a small 'drinking cup'. The other was in a grave about 5 ft. away with animal bones. In a layer of soil and charcoal 2 ft. thick at the base of the mound were four more inhumations and two 'drinking cups'. At least seven urns, three of them complete, accompanied or contained cremations higher in the mound. One complete biconical urn with applied horse-shoe handles and perforated lugs contained a bead of rolled sheet bronze; another a small bone pin.

In a third barrow (LVG 46c), a cremation, probably primary, with broken urn lay in a cist, near which were three further cremations and another urn. Four urns lay on the S. side of the mound and on the N.E. was an inhumation in a stone-lined grave. The fourth barrow (LVG 46d) contained three bucket urns, one with perforamtions on either side of a crack as if to bind it together. Some of the urns from these barrows are in the B.M. Warne also records the opening of a large barrow containing 'great stones … placed over the urns, similar to those in the Deverel Barrow.' . . .

The site of a plough-levelled round barrow is visible as a cropmark double ring ditch on aerial photographs (6.1) and was digitally recorded during the Dorset Upper Cerne and Piddle AIM Project. Traces of an internal mound are visible as low earthworks on lidar imagery (9).

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

('A' - SY 82659683; 'B' - SY 82709683) Tumuli (NR)

<2> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 89-90 (Monograph). SDO132.

<3> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 437 (Monograph). SDO150.

(98) Bowl (82709683) 55 yds. E. of (97) on centre of ridge and at 'Celtic' field angle. Diam. 57 ft., ht. 2½ ft.'

<4> Department of the Environment, 1977, Department of the Environment (IAM) Ancient Monuments of England Vol 2, 60 (Monograph). SWX2300.

<5> Barton, J G, Various, Field Investigators Comments JGB, F2 JGB 15-MAY-81 (Unpublished document). SDO11900.

<6> Miller, Andrew, 1993, RCHME: AP Primary Recording Project, 16-FEB-1993 (Unpublished document). SWX1708.

<6.1> NMR 4527: 22-23, 25-27 (Aerial Photograph). SDO20323.

<7> English Heritage, Scheduled Monument revision, 09-MAR-2001 (Scheduling record). SDO18414.

<8> National Record of the Historic Environment, 455916 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

<9> Environment Agency, 15-DEC-2023, LIDAR Environment Agency DTM (Aerial Photograph). SDO20691.

Record last edited

Jan 20 2025 3:13PM