Monument record MDO845 - Bowl barrow on Lyscombe Hill, Cheselbourne

A bowl barrow north west of Lyscombe Bottom. In 1970 this monument was recorded as around 38 feet in diameter with a mound about 5½ feet high, and thickly overgrown. This barrow sits very close to, and is possibly joined to, a second round barrow.

(ST 73460273) A bowl barrow, 38 feet diameter and 5 1/2 feet high. It is thickly overgrown but appears to be joined to a second bowl barrow at ST 73470273, 36 feet diameter and 5 feet high with the centre dug into. <2>

Situated on the edge of a ridge and overlooking a valley to the south are two bowl barrows. Both measure 12.0m north to south but overlap east to west to form a conjoined mound 22.0m long. The eastern barrow is up to 1.6m high, the western 2.1m high. Both are tree and scrub covered, but otherwise well preserved. The vestigial remains of possible ditches run for some 8.0m around the east and west sides.

Surveyed at 1:2500 on MSD. <3>

This and adjacent barrow may be twins in the same oval ditch. <4>

<1> Ordnance Survey, 1900, Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, epoch two (Map). SDO11594.

(ST 73460273) Tumulus (NR) (One mound).

<2> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 2, 79 (Monograph). SDO136.

‘Of sixteen round barrows in the parish, Monuments (24–29) and (30–33) form two small groups on Cheselbourne West Down; the remainder are widely dispersed. … (37) Bowl (73460273), on Lyscombe Hill at the extreme N. of Cheselbourne parish, is thickly overgrown but appears to be joined to (38); diam. about 38 ft., ht. 5½ ft.’

<3> Barrett, G, Various, Field Investigators Comments GB, F2 GB 10-NOV-78 (Unpublished document). SDO17369.

<4> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 100 (Monograph). SDO132.

<5> National Record of the Historic Environment, 201970 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jan 25 2022 8:59AM