Monument record MDO726 - Bowl barrow, Cerne Abbas

Probable round barrow identified from Ordnance Survey Records. The feature is visible as a low earthwork on 1940s aerial photographs and Environment Agency lidar imagery and was digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Cerne and Piddle Valleys AIM project.

There are four mounds in the position described by the Royal Commission, within an area of ploughed-down banks and lynchets (see ST 60 SE 44). … "C" - ST 67840102. Probable bowl barrow 12.0m dia by 0.5m high. … Several flints were found at "B" & "C". <2>

The pasture field centred at ST 679011 contains a number of small undulations some of which are at the above-given sitings but none can for certain be stated to be the remains of barrows, but may mark the sites of barrows. No mound exceeds 0.3m in height. (Not depicted on OS 25" 1900). <3>

The feature is visible as a low earthwork on 1940s aerial photographs and Environment Agency lidar imagery and was digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Cerne and Piddle Valleys AIM project. <5, 6>

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments England, 1952, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume I (West) (Monograph). SDO97.

‘(37) Barrows, on a spur of Green Hill 1 m. S.S.E. of the church, are five in number and nearly in a line. The northernmost (a) is 20 ft. in diam. and 1½ ft. high; (b) bowl barrow, 150 yards to the S., is 34 ft. in diam. and 3 ft. high; it has been disturbed in the middle; (c) bowl barrow, 70 yards S. of (b), is 44 ft. in diam. and 4 ft. high; (d), 70 yards S. of (c), is 17 ft. in diam. and ¾ ft. high; (e) bowl barrow, 80 yards S. of (d), is 32 ft. in diam. and 3 ft. high.’

<2> Rigg, J, Field Investigators Comments JR, F1 JR 02-APR-55 (Unpublished document). SWX1255.

<2.1> Royal Air Force, 11-APR-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1974 2374-5 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18833.

<3> Phillips, A S, Various, Field Investigators Comments ASP, F2 ASP 22-JUL-77 (Unpublished document). SWX3817.

<4> National Record of the Historic Environment, 199031 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

<5> Royal Air Force, 11-APR-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1974 FS 2375 (Aerial Photograph). SDO20736.

<6> Environment Agency, 16-NOV-2021, LIDAR Environment Agency DTM (Aerial Photograph). SDO18034.

Record last edited

Aug 21 2024 9:26AM