Monument record MDO3097 - Barrow in the Lanceborough Group, Winterborne Monkton

Bell barrow, 130ft. in diam and 21ft. high, with sloping berm about 20ft. wide. Ditch is about 37ft. wide and 2ft. to 3.5ft. deep. A stone cist containing an inhumation, probably Roman, with head to E. was found in the top of the mound. Visible as a cropmark on aerial photographs. The site was digitally plotted during the South Dorset Ridgeway Mapping Project.

'B' & 'D' Two bell barrows. 'B' The largest bell barrow in Dorset and probably in Wessex. The mound is 150 ft diam, 18 ft height surroundedby berm 20 ft wide and a ditch 35 ft wide and 3 ft deep. An intrusive Ro inhumation in a sarcophagus was found near the top. Cunningtons No17. <2> 'D'. A grass covered bell barrow; diameter of the mound 30.0m, including a berm 4.0m wide. The ditch is very mutilated and unsurveyable. <3> Lanceborough Group. Four barrows including two bells and a possible bell, with a long barrow (SY 68 NE 93) and a horseshoe-shaped enclosure (SY 68 NE 94) lie on a local downland crest about 300 ft above OD some 700 yards N of the W end of the Maiden Castle 'long mound' (SY 68 NE 90). The adjacent open field furlong was called Lanceborough or Great Barrow Furlong (Tithe Map 1844), a name probably referring to 'C' the largest bell barrow in the area. All the barrows have been damaged, mostly by ploughing. 'C' (6) Bell (66698928) 160 yards E of (5). Diameter about 130 ft, height 21 ft, with sloping berm about 20 ft wide. Ditch about 37 ft wide and 2-3.5 feet deep. A stone cist containing an inhumation, probably Roman, with head of E was found in top of mound (DCC 14 Aug 1962). <4-5> 'C' SY 66698928. Bell barrow under grass. Height 7.0m, overall diameter 76.0m, diameter of the mound 56.0m. Berm 5.0m wide. On theNE side the ditch appears to have been destroyed and a 'false ditch' created by modern ploughing. A, C and D re-surveyed at 1:2500 on MSD. <6> A stone cist containing an inhumation, probably Roman, with head to E. was found in the top of the mound. Visible as a cropmark on aerial photographs <9>. The site was digitally plotted during the South Dorset Ridgeway Mapping Project. A bell barrow, part of a cluster of monuments located north of Maiden Castle (see associated monument records). The barrow is listed by Grinsell as Winterborne Monkton 1b and by RCHME as Winterborne Monkton 6. Described by Grinsell as the largest bell barrow in Dorset, in 1980 the Ordnance Survey measured it at 7 metres high, with a mound 56 metres in diameter separated from the ditch by a berm 5 metres wide, the overall diameter of the monument being circa 76 metres. It was also noted that "on the NE side the ditch appears to have been destroyed and a 'false ditch' created by modern ploughing". Excavation in 1862 found a stone cist containing an inhumation in the top of the mound. A Romano-British date has been assumed for this secondary burial. RCHME noted that the field name "Great Barrow Field" probably referred to this barrow. The barrow is scheduled. This monument was formerly described as part of SY 68 NE 26. That record should be consulted for additional sources and information. <13>

Record last edited

Feb 12 2024 5:21PM