Monument record MDO7779 - Windmill Barrow, Lytchett Matravers

A mound thought likely to be the mound on which a windmill was set, though recorded as a possible bowl barrow in the past. The feature is visible as a conical circular mound with a circular depression in the top on current Environment Agency lidar imagery. It was digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM project.

A bowl barrow, diameter 37 paces, height 12ft. covered in firs. Hollow in the centre. Height is about 7ft. from south 12ft. from north. (Grinsell, unpublished manuscript)

A bowl barrow with no visible ditch. The tree-covered mound has a diameter of 33.0m., and a height of 2.0m. The hollow in the centre is a depression 10.0m. in diameter and 0.4m. deep. In spite of its name, no evidence of a windmill being at the site was found during recording or field investigation. (Quinnell 1955)

SY 93729774. 'Windmill Barrow' probable windmill mound of pear-shaped form with diameters, 107ft. West to east and 94ft. North to south, and a height of about 11ft. There is an embanked circular depression about 45ft. Diameter on the top of the mound which is situated on the spine of a slight ridge at about 250ft. OD. (RCHME 1970; Bone 1980)

Windmill Barrow (name confirmed) remains as described by RCHME (1970) and Bone (1980). It is scheduled as a barrow, but R.C.H.M. believe it to be a windmill mound. No additional observations can be made to resolve the difference, except that it seems large for a windmill mound. On the Tithe Map the area is called "Fortune Close". Resurveyed at 1:2500 on M.S.D. (Barton 1981)

The feature is visible as a conical circular 33m in diameter mound with a circular depression approximately 12m in diameter in the top on current Environment Agency lidar imagery [9]. No outer ditch is visible. It was digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM project.

Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/093 RCHME Inventory: Dorset II (South-East) (Unpublished document).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

Historic England, National Record of the Historic Environment, 457281 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, epoch 1, Dorset XXXIV.9 Surveyed: 1887, Published: 1888 (Map). SDO10239.

'Windmill Barrow (Tumulus)'

Barton, J G, Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Field Investigator's Comments JGB, F3 JGB 19-FEB-81 (Unpublished document). SDO11900.

Quinnell, N V, Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Field Investigator's Comments NVQ, F1 NVQ 24-NOV-55 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1929 (Map). SWX1540.

(SY 93729773) Windmill Barrow. Tumulus (NR)

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

1839, Lytchett Matravers Tithe Map (Map). SDO19198.

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

Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 482 (Monograph). SDO150.

'(38) 'WINDMILL BARROW', probable windmill mound (SY 99 NW; 93729774), on spine of slight ridge about 250 ft. above O.D. Pear-shaped, diams. 107 ft. W.-E. and 94 ft. N.-S. Ht. about 11 ft. Embanked circular depression about 45 ft. in diam. on top of mound, with spur to E.'

Bone, M, 1980, Notes and Queries for Somerset and Dorset 31 March 1980, 14 (Article in serial). SDO19174.

Cornwall Archaeological Unit, Cornwall Council, 2022, 2022 AIM Middle Stour HE8422 (Machine readable data file). SDO21760.

Record last edited

Jun 8 2026 3:43PM