Monument record MDO986 - Bowl barrow on Lord's Down, Dewlish

Bronze Age bowl barrow, one of the Lord's Down Group. In 1970 this monument was reported as 53 feet in diameter with a mound around 1½ feet high, and much ploughed. This barrow was opened by antiquarian Charles Warne, who found a cremation burial in a cist, and with a bronze dagger, a whetstone, a bone pin and tweezers. The site of a plough-levelled Bronze Age round barrow is visible as a cropmark ring ditch with internal mound on aerial photographs, it was digitally recorded during the Dorset Upper Cern and Piddle AIM Project.

Six round barrows on Lords Down: D: SY 78479629 Bowl barrow 53 feet in diameter by 1 1/2 feet high. It stands on the highest part of the Down, and has been much ploughed. (Barrows 'C' 'D' and 'E' were probably excavated by Warne. <4>

These barrows have been reduced by ploughing since 1970 and now measure: 'D' SY 78479628, diameter approximately 25.0m., height 0.6m. C-E in arable. None has a visible ditch. Re-surveyed at 1:2500 on M.S.D. <6>

Six round barrows on Lord's Down (SY 7896) were excavated by Charles Warne immediately before the area was brought under cultivation. Warne's No 33 (probably SY 79 NE21C) was 82ft in diameter and 12ft high, having been enlarged periodically for the reception of secondary interments. It covered a primary grave 6ft in diameter and 2ft deep in the natural chalk; this grave contained a Beaker (probably Long-Necked or Type A) but apparently no inhumation. Above this lay the secondary interments; first, on a layer of chalk rubble, the skeleton of a child associated with Beaker fragments; second, in the top of the same layer, a cist with a small plain urn containing a cremation; third, above a layer of mould and in a further layer of chalk rubble, a cremation with ashes be beneath an inverted ridged Food-vessel urn; fourth, in a cist cut into the same layer, an inverted biconical urn; the bottom of the latter was smashed by, fifth, a further inverted biconical urn. Just below the surface was an undated skeleton, probably intrusive. Nos 34,35 and 36 all adjoined No 33 but are no longer visible. No 34 contained a primary cremation with ashes in a small cist cut into the natural chalk; No 35 had a skeleton 1 1/2 ft below the surface; No 36 had a crouched interment, probably primary. No 37 (probably SY 79 NE 21D) contained a primary cremation within a central cist, 4ft long, 2ft wide and 2ft deep, at the base of the mound; in association were a crutch-headed bone pin, tweezers, a perforated whetstone and a bronze ogival dagger (Wessex grave-group 8) No 38 (probably SY 79 NE 21E) covered a primary cremation with a bronze ogival dagger in a cist cut in the natural chalk; within a cairn of flints covering the cist were the fragments of an urn (Wessex grave-group 11). <7>

<1> Warne, C, 1866, The Celtic Tumuli of Dorset (1866) (Monograph). SWX8166.

<2> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 105 (Monograph). SDO132.

‘Opened by CW: primary cremation with flat 3-rivetted bronze dagger, perforated whetstone, crutch-headed bone pin, and tweezers (similar to Anc. Wilts I, pl IX) in chalk cist 4 ft. by 2 ft. by 2 ft. deep. CTD (mopr), no. 37; pl. X (Daggers), C. Finds in DCM.’

<3> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1963 (Map). SWX1540.

(Centred SY 783963) Tumulus (NR) (twice) Tumuli (NR) (twice)

<4> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 1, 89 (Monograph). SDO146.

'Lord's Down Group comprises the following four barrows which lie within the S. projection of the parish between 250 ft. and 300 ft. above O.D.
(12) Bowl (78479629), on the highest part of Lord's Down; much ploughed; diam. 53 ft., ht. 1½ ft.'

<5> Barton, J G, Various, Field Investigators Comments JGB, F1 JGB 02-OCT-80 (Unpublished document). SDO11900.

<6> Barton, J G, Various, Field Investigators Comments JGB, F1 JGB 07-OCT-80 (Unpublished document). SDO11900.

<7> National Record of the Historic Environment, 454535 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

<8> National Record of the Historic Environment, 454622 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

<9> Historic England Archive, 30-APR-2015, HEA 29577/027 (Aerial Photograph). SDO20881.

<10> National Monuments Record, 15-FEB-2005, NMR 23807/14 (Aerial Photograph). SDO20886.

Record last edited

Aug 15 2024 6:50PM