Monument record MDO7900 - Ulwell Barrow, Ballard Down, Studland Swanage parish boundary

A turf covered bowl barrow, 23.0m. diameter and 1.9m high in the west. There are evident traces of a ditch in the eastern quadrant which are only slight elsewhere. Square hollow on top. <2>

Both inhumations were made, the intrusive one being Anglo-Saxon. <3>

SZ 02238132. Ulwell Barrow, ditched bowl barrow, 74ft diameter and 6ft high with ditch 12ft wide, on the west end of Ballard Down. There is an excavation hollow in top and the barrow is cut by a hedge-bank on the north. On the south where crossed by the parish boundary is a collapsed obelisk dated 1892 (shown) on OS 6"). Excavated by Austen in 1857 who found a primary contracted inhumation, the skull surrounded by flat stones, in a chalk-cut grave 8ft x 5ft, associated with a handled cup of fine red ware; antler fragments occurred in the grave filling. Near the centre of the mound were disarticulated inhumation with urn fragments and, slightly higher, a cremation under a flat stone with more urn fragments. In the top of the mound were Iron Age and/or Romano British debris and many flint chippings. <3-4>

This barrow, which is on grassland at 490 ft OD is in good condition and is described by Auth 3. The obelisk which stands on the south slope of the barrow was reerected in 1972 and stands to its full height. (Not an antiquity) 4/89 Surveyed at 1:2500. <5>

The barrow is visible as an earthwork on aerial photographs of the 2000s. The barrow measures 19 m in diameter.<7-9> This feature was digitally plotted during the Wild Purbeck Mapping Project.

<1> Ordnance Survey, Various, Ordnance Survey Map 6in. Prov. Ed (Map). SWX2257.

(SZ 02238132) Tumulus (NR)

<2> Rigg, J, Field Investigators Comments JR, F1 JR 02-SEP-52 (Unpublished document). SWX1255.

<3> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 132 (Monograph). SDO132.

<4> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 452 (Monograph). SDO150.

<4.1> Austen, J H, 1856-7, Purbeck Papers 1, 167-60 (Monograph). SWX4501.

<4.2> Hawkes, C F C, 1933, Barrows. Antiquaries Journal 13, 447 (Article in serial). SWX4347.

<5> Wardale, C F, Various, Field Investigators Comments CFW, F2 CFW 16-AUG-85 (Unpublished document). SWX2704.

<6> Papworth, M D J, Trust for Wessex Archaeology, 1983, Isle of Purbeck Survey, IOP 98 (Index). SDO147.

‘Ditched bowl barrow. Mound diam. 22.6m and Ht. 1.8.m. Ditch diam.29.8m and width 3.6m. Situated in a regularly ploughed field but the mound remains unploughed. The mound lies N of a fence and track. On its S. side is built an obelisk and the top appears to have been disturbed by past excavation. There is no sign of the ditch and there is slight steepening of the perimeter due to basal ploughing. The mound is covered by grass and a hawthorn bush grows on the S. side. OS SZ08SW45. 1/2/B.’

<7> Google Earth, 2008, Google Earth 2008 (Aerial Photograph). SDO12665.

<8> Dorset County Council, XX-XXX-2005, DCC 4020810 (Aerial Photograph). SDO13557.

<9> Environment Agency, 18-NOV-2006, NMR SZ 0281/10-14 NMR 24138/17-23 (Aerial Photograph). SDO13558.

<10> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/093 RCHME Inventory: Dorset II (South-East) (Unpublished document). SDO17434.

<11> National Record of the Historic Environment, 457672 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Apr 20 2023 6:58PM