Monument record MDO7136 - Bowl barrow, Bere Regis

A bowl barrow reported in 1970 as being a slight mound about one foot high and 36 feet in diameter. This may have been a barrow excavated by Charles Warne around 1850. Warne found a large quantity of burnt bones and ashes covering two urns near the centre of the barrow, and nearer the base of the mound a cairn of flint around a skeleton. Three other small heaps of flint covering deposits of burnt bone and ashes were also found within the mound. Warne also described a Beaker and sherds of a lugged urn. The site of the barrow is visible as a cropmark ring ditch with traces of an internal mound on aerial photographs taken in 1947; they were digitally recorded during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM.

Two bowl barrows, 12 paces diameter and 1ft. high on arable ground. <3>

Two bowl barrows under grass, with no sign of ditches or excavations. 'B' - 18.0 metres diameter, 0.5 metres high. <4>

'B' - (107) - SY 83989728. Bowl (?) barrow, 36ft diameter and 1ft high, much spread. <6>

'B'. SY 83989726. Barrow, diameter 15.0 metres, height 0.5 metres, ploughed down. 'B' Resurveyed at 1:2500 on M.S.D. <7>

A bowl barrow located circa 350 metres north of Bere Down Farm. Listed by RCHME as Bere Regis 107 and by Grinsell as Bere Regis 2, it was originally described by RCHME as being a much spread mound 36 feet in diameter and 1 foot high. In 1981, the Ordnance Survey recorded it as a ploughed down mound 15 metres in diameter and 0.5 metres high. The barrow is scheduled. RCHME tentatively identified it with a barrow excavated circa 1850, one of four described by Warne and originally said to be on "Winterborne Kingston Down", though it is now accepted that all four were on Bere Down. This barrow, assuming the RCHME are correct in their identification, was Warne's tumulus 9, and listed spearately by Grinsell as Bere Regis 8a. Grinsell made no attempt to identify these four excavated barrows with any of the known extant barrows in the area. Warne described the barrow as being 6 feet high and 30 feet in diameter. Warne describes the primary deposit, near the centre of the barrow, as comprising a large quantity of burnt bones and ashes ("charred wood, and black clayey mould") covering two urns standing side by side. One of the urns contained a circular piece of green sandstone. Near the base of the mound was what Warne described as "a cairn of flints, placed around the skeleton of a youn person, with the legs drawn up". On the same level within the mound were three further small heaps of flint, spaced about two feet apart, and each covering a small deposit of burnt bones and ashes. A Beaker was found close to the summit of the mound (Warne does not mention whether any cremated remains were with it) and, slightly deeper, the sherds of a "knobbed" or lugged urn with burnt bones and ashes. Warne's tumulus 9 was previously recorded separately as part of SY 89 NW 31. That record should be consulted for further sources and information. The other extant barrow formerly described as part of this record has now been recorded separately as SY 89 NW 101. <9>
The site of the barrow is visible as a cropmark ring ditch with traces of an internal mound on aerial photographs taken in 1947; they were digitally recorded during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM <10>.

National Monuments Record, 11-JUL-1989, NMR 4527/30 (Aerial Photograph). SDO19879.

<1> Warne, C, 1866, The Celtic Tumuli of Dorset (1866), 9 (Monograph). SWX8166.

<2> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1902 (Map). SWX1540.

(SY 83989727) Tumuli (NR)

<3> Grinsell, L V, 1935-54, Dorset Barrows 1935-54 Manuscript (Unpublished document). SWX1556.

<4> Swatridge, G C, Various, Field Investigators Comments GCS, F1 GCS 16-NOV-54 (Unpublished document). SWX1169.

<5> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 88 (Monograph). SDO132.

<6> 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.

'(107) Bowl (?) (SY 89 NW' 83989728) 35 yds. N.E. of (106) above 200 ft. Diam. 36 ft., ht. 1 ft. Much spread.'

<7> Barton, J G, Various, Field Investigators Comments JGB, F2 JGB 15-MAY-81 (Unpublished document). SDO11900.

<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, 455965 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

<10> Royal Air Force, 11-APR-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1974 RP 3349-51 (Aerial Photograph). SDO19881.

Record last edited

Jun 19 2023 6:20PM