Monument record MDO7626 - Round barrow, East Holme

A round mound surrounded by a ditch. Visible as earthworks on aerial photographs, and interpreted as the probable site of a Bronze Age bowl barrow.

The mound is 27m across and the outer bank 37m across, and surrounded by a ditch <2>. Field investigators in 1986 found a concrete base of a former flagpole and an army 'antiquity star' on the top of the mound (3). The site was digitally plotted during the Wild Purbeck NMP.

SY 90508461. Mound, possible barrow, on summit of small knoll and within tree-clump enclosure. Diameter about 90 feet, height 10 feet. At least partly artificial. <1>

SY 90508461. East Holme 7. ?Barrow listed, details as, and with reference to, Authy 1. <3>

SY 90508460. This large gorse-covered earthen mound is set on a prominent natural knoll. It measures c.30.0m in diameter and has a 10.0m diameter flat top. It is anything from 3.6m to 5.2m in height; part of the mound is built on the slope which accounts for this wide variation in height. The north-east side, under dense rhododendron cover, has been mutilated.

The tree-ring bank is on average 0.8m high externally and 0.3m high internally.

The concrete base of a former flagpole and an army 'antiquity star' occupy the top of the mound and it is surrounded by a mature conifer plantation. It may, as suggested, be a round barrow especially as many barrows of similar size exist in the locality. (eg. SY 98 SW 37, 41,1.) <4>

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 444-5 (Monograph). SDO150.

‘(8) Mound, possible barrow (SY 98 SW; 90508461) on summit of small knoll and within tree-clump enclosure. Diam. about 90 ft., ht. 1 ft. At least partly artificial.’

<2> Royal Air Force, 04-NOV-1946, RAF/CPE/UK/1821 4415 (Aerial Photograph). SDO13462.

<3> Grinsell, L V, 1982, Dorset Barrows Supplement, 39 (Monograph). SWX1703.

<4> Fletcher, Martin, Field investigator's comments MJF, F1 MJF 22-APR-86 (Unpublished document). SDO17630.

<5> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/093 RCHME Inventory: Dorset II (South-East) (Unpublished document). SDO17434.

<6> National Record of the Historic Environment, 457101 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Aug 12 2022 3:07PM