Monument record MDO7308 - Bronze Age Barrow on Creech Barrow, Church Knowle

A Bronze Age barrow is visible as a mutilated earthwork mound on aerial photographs on Creech Barrow. A badly disturbed earthwork mound up to 22 metres across and 3 metres high. The surrounding ditch is now barely traceable on the surface. The name Creech Barrow does not seem to refer to this barrow

A bowl barrow, large and ditched, hollow in centre. On Creech Barrow, but the name almost certainly refers to the hill and not to the barrow on the hill. <2>

This barrow has been badly mutilated by excavation in the North East quadrant and a hollow measuring 8.0m long, 5.0m wide and 1.3m deep remains. It has also been mutilated by a modern boundary bank and ditch C-D.
The barrow is 22.0m A-B and 19.0m C-D and has a maximum height of 3.0m. It has a ditch in the South-East quadrant 2.5m wide and 0.3m deep. Bowl Barrow. <3>

SY 92108233. Church Knowle 13. Bowl barrow listed. <4>

The area, including the barrow is densely overgrown with bracken. 'Creech Barrow' does not refer to this barrow.

SW 92108233. Ditched bowl barrow on end of spur projecting south from Creech Barrow hill, crossed west of centre by the parish boundary bank with Steeple. Diameter 75 feet, height about 6ft. Possibly the barrow excavated by Austen on Creech Hill. <5>

SY 921823. Creech Barrow. Scheduled. <6>

This vegetation - covered and gutted round barrow is situated on a shelf of a steep south-west facing hill-slope. The dimensions are generally as noted in 1952 (3) but only the west side bears any resemblance to a barrow because the remainder is so badly disturbed. The ditch is barely traceable. Resurveyed at 1:2500. <8>




A Bronze Age barrow is visible as a mutilated earthwork mound on aerial photographs on Creech Barrow (1-2). It is still visible on the latest Google Earth imagery and was digitally plotted during the Wild Purbeck mapping project.

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1929 (Map). SWX1540.

(SY 92108233) Tumulus (NR)

<2> Grinsell, L V, Dorset Barrows (Unpublished MSs) (Unpublished document). SWX2678.

<3> Rigg, J, Field Investigators Comments JR, F1 JR 17-JUL-52 (Unpublished document). SWX1255.

<4> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 101 (Monograph). SDO132.

<5> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 442 (Monograph). SDO150.

‘(36) Ditched bowl (SY 98 SW; 92108233) on end of spur above 600 ft. contour projecting S. from Creech Barrow hill, and crossed W. of centre by parish boundary bank with Steeple. Diam. 75 ft., ht. about 6 ft. Probably the barrow excavated by Austen, containing three primary contracted inhumations, one with a trepanned roundel from a child's skull, in a flint cairn; and two secondary extended inhumations. (Purbeck Papers I, 113–15; P.P.S. VI (1940), 112–32.)’

<6> Department of the Environment, 1978, Department of the Environment (IAM) Ancient Monuments of England (Vol 2), 62 (Monograph). SWX1687.

<7> Papworth, M D J, Trust for Wessex Archaeology, 1983, Isle of Purbeck Survey, IOP 219 (Index). SDO147.

‘On heathland covered in blackberry, bracken and grass. Crossed by a footpath which has eroded a groove into the barrow. A trench, evidence of past excavation, has been dug into the N.E. side. Crossed by a parish boundary bank. 1/3/C.’

<8> Fletcher, Martin, Field investigator's comments MJF, F2 MJF 01-MAY-86 (Unpublished document). SDO17630.

<9> Royal Air Force, 04-NOV-1946, RAF/CPE/UK/1821 2415-16 (Aerial Photograph). SDO13622.

<10> Royal Air Force, 12-MAY-1946, RAF 3G/TUG/UK206 PTI 5017-8 (Aerial Photograph). SDO13623.

<11> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/093 RCHME Inventory: Dorset II (South-East) (Unpublished document). SDO17434.

<12> National Record of the Historic Environment, 456906 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Oct 10 2024 3:24PM