Monument record MDO8675 - Bell barrow, Lower Close, Deverel Close, Christchurch

Barrow excavated by C M Piggott in 1937 owing to its imminent destruction by gravel digging. The barrow may be visible as a shallow depression on a 1947 aerial photograph. This feature was digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

Site of LBA cemetery found 1937. <2>

Bell-Barrow. Barrow excavated by C M Piggott in 1937 owing to its imminent destruction by gravel digging. Three pits revealed, two contained primary burials; the other had been refilled soon after digging. One of the primary pits contained an MBA cinerary urn with the cremated bones of two children; the other contained a cremated burial in the carbonised remains of a tree-trunk coffin, with a bronze pin, which possibly had been used to fasten the material in which the bones had been wrapped. Further excavation revealed that the southern half of the barrow had been used as an LBA urnfield with cremations totalling 90, of which only 70 were burials with urns. <2-7>

The barrow may be visible as a shallow depression on a 1947 aerial photograph <8>. A shallow, sub-circular and irregular depression is visible on the east side of a trackway running thtrough the extractive area, broadly in the location of the barrow. The depression is 12m long by 5.5m wide and has a scarped edge on its east side.

This feature was under housing on 2000 Google Earth imagery <9>. It was digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey 25 inch scale map, 1939 (Map). SDO18020.

Tumulus (OE) (Site of)

<2> Calkin, J B, Annotated Record Map Corr 6, 1948 (Map). SWX8214.

<2.1> Crawford, O G S, Oral information, correspondence (not archived) or staff comments: O G S Crawford (Verbal communication). SWX8206.

<3> Calkin, J B, Catalogue Druitt Collection, Red House Museum, Christchurch (Monograph). SWX4362.

<4> Piggott, C M, 1938, A Middle Bronze Age barrow and deverel-rimbury urnfield at Latch farm, Christchurch, Hampshire; Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 4., p169-187 (Article in serial). SWX8207.

<5> Calkin, J B, 1952, Bournemouth Area in Neolithic and Early Bronze Age times, p32-70 (Article in serial). SWX3647.

<6> Woodhouse, W C, Various, Field Investigators Comments WCW, F1 WCW 15-JUL-54 (Unpublished document). SWX3798.

<7> Calkin, J B, 1962, The Bournemouth Area in the Middle and Late Bronze Age, with the 'Deverel Rimbury' problem reconsidered, p11 Illus (Article in serial). SWX3709.

<8> Royal Air Force, 03-SEP-47, RAF/CPE/UK/2284 Vp4 5338-9 (Aerial Photograph). SDO15835.

<9> Google Earth, 2000, Google Earth imagery 2000 (Aerial Photograph). SDO15834.

<10> Jefferies, Jeff, 1999, The Barrows of Christchurch. Their Past, Present and Future, Appendix 1. Barrow Record 2 (Unpublished document). SDO20590.

<11> National Record of the Historic Environment, 458545 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Mar 20 2024 1:06PM