Monument record MDO8434 - Neolithic Pit, Normanhurst Avenue, Haddon Hill, Bournemouth

An isolated shallow pit containing the remains of an early Neolithic bag-shaped shell-tempered pot was found during road works in Normanhurst Avenue in 1936. The pottery is almost identical to vessels found in Holdenhurst Long Barrowl.

Fragments of Neolithic bowl found 15th September 1936. Now in Calkin Collection, British Museum. <1>

An early neolithic bag-shaped pot was found on 15 September 1936 during road-making on Normanhurst Avenue. The fragments of the pot were found in a small pit about 2 feet (0.6 m) deep. No other pits were visible nearby. <3>

Site was pointed out on the ground to OS surveyors by J. B. Calkin (1948), NG ref. therefore completely accurate.
Site now built over by London Road. <4>

The bowl is domestic and the fabric exactly parallel that found at the Holdenhurst long barrow (SZ 19 SW 7). It is suggested that this site represents the domestic remains of the builders of the Holdenhurst long barrow. The report includes a full analysis of the thin-section. <5>

The pot was acquired by the British Museum as part of the Calkin Collection and was analysed and reconstructed in about 1980. The vessel is a bag-pot with simple pointed rim and has a vesicular shell tempered buff fabric. It had been smoothed internally and externally and is reasonably well fired. Parts of the pot have grey discolouration, possibly from smoke. The fabric is very similar to pottery from Holdenhurst long barrow. Similar pots have been found at Maiden Castle and at Southbourne. The Maiden Castle pot was found in a small pit, which was thought to be a cooking pit and it has been suggested that the Haddon Hill pit was also a cooking pit and it has been tentatively suggested that it might have been part of a settlement site associated with the Holdenhurst Long Barrow. <5>

<1> Calkin, J B, Annotated Record Map Corr 6, 1948 (Map). SWX8214.

<1.1> Bournemouth Daily Echo, 23.9.36 (Serial). SDO16819.

<2> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, 1939 (Map). SDO10373.

(SZ 1134 9423) Neolithic Pottery found AD 1936

<3> Calkin, J B, 1951, The Bournemouth Area in Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Times, 59 (Article in serial). SWX3981.

<4> Colquhoun, F D, Field Investigators Comments FDC, F1 FDC 20-NOV-51 (Unpublished document). SWX2609.

<5> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1982, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1980, 95-96 (Serial). SDO80.

<6> National Record of the Historic Environment, 458804 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

May 9 2023 1:20PM