Monument record MWX522 - Wardstone Barrow, Chaldon Herring

Bronze Age bowl barrow visible as an earthwork on aerial photographs of the 1940s. In 1972 this monument was reported as 44 feet in diameter with a mound about 6 feet high, and hollowed out in the centre. It was opened in 1867, revealing a cremation in a bucket urn.

Excavation of the mound in 1867 revealed a primary cremation in an upright Late Bronze Age bucket-urn covered with a flat stone. The urn was preserved at Lulworth Castle but was destroyed by fire in 1928. <1-3>

Wardstone Barrow is a bowl barrow measuring 44ft. diameter by 4 1/2 ft. <3> or 6ft. <5>

SY 793248133. Wardstone Barrow (name not confirmed) - a bowl barrow in arable but not ploughed over. Diameter 13.0m., height 1.4m. No visible ditch. Re-surveyed at 1:2500 on M.S.D. <6>

The Bronze Age barrow known as the Wardstone Barrow is visible as an earthwork on aerial photographs of the 1940s. The barrow is sub-circular and measures 13 m in diameter. <7> The barrow is still visible as an earthwork on the most recent comprehensive aerial photography available to the project. <8> This feature was digitally plotted as part of the Wild Purbeck Mapping Project.

<1> Hawkes, C F C, 1933, Barrows. Antiquaries Journal 13, p444 (Article in serial). SWX4347.

<2> Farrar, R A H, 1955, Archaeological Fieldwork in Dorset 1955. Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 127-128 (Article in serial). SWX1552.

<3> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 98 (Monograph). SDO132.

‘There are some large stones to N., from which the barrow may have been named. Opened 1867: primary cremation in upright LBA bucket-urn covered with flat stone. Urn drawn by OGSC 1919 but destroyed in fire at Lulworth Castle 1928. Ant. J xiii, 444; Dorset Proc lxxvii, 127-8, where urn is figured.’

<4> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1963 (Map). SWX1540.

Wardstone Barrow (NR)

<5> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 441 (Monograph). SDO150.

‘(36) Wardstone Barrow, bowl (SY 78 SE; 79348133). On N. shoulder of coastal ridge on site prominent from N. Diam. 44 ft., ht. 6 ft., but hollowed by excavation in 1867 which revealed, near the middle and on the original ground surface, a probably primary cremation in a bucket urn, now destroyed, covered by a flat stone (Dorset Procs. LXXVII (1955), 127–8). The barrow was probably at the angle of a 'Celtic' field.’

<6> Barton, J G, Various, Field Investigators Comments JGB, F1 JGB 30-JUL-80 (Unpublished document). SDO11900.

<7> Royal Air Force, 04-NOV-1946, RAF/CPE/UK/1821 2439-40 (Aerial Photograph). SDO13887.

<8> Dorset County Council, XX-XXX-2009, Dorset CC Vertical Digital Photo Tile (Aerial Photograph). SDO13314.

<9> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/093 RCHME Inventory: Dorset II (South-East) (Unpublished document). SDO17434.

<10> National Record of the Historic Environment, 454155 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Dec 20 2024 6:40PM