Monument record MDO6006 - Round barrow, possibly 'Badbury Barrow', Shapwick

A Bronze Age bowl barrow. In 1975 this monument was reported as being around 70 feet in diameter with a mound about two feet high, and heavily ploughed. The barrow is visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs and was digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour Catchment AI&M Project. The record for this monument has been enhanced with support from Wessex Water.

The monument includes two bowl barrows and a disc barrow 960 metres north west of Crab Farm. The bowl barrows range in diameter between 22 metres and 30 metres and between 0.4 metres and 1 metre in height. Surrounding the mound is are quarry ditches from which material was excavated during their construction. The ditches have become infilled over the years and now survive as buried features 3 metres wide. A linear feature visible on aerial photographs passes close to both barrows on the south west side. The disc barrow is no longer visible on the ground but can be seen on aerial photographs, and part excavation by the National Trust in 1988 showed that it survives as a ring ditch, 4.2 metres wide and 1.7 metres deep, forming a circle about 60 metres in diameter. 'B' Bowl barrow 24 paces diameter by 2 ft high. These two barrows could be the 'Badbury Barrow' destroyed in 1845, and another barrow in the same field excavated by J H Austen. <1> Heavily ploughed round barrows, visible on air photographs. <2> The site of a Bronze Age round barrow is visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs taken in 1966 <6> and was digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour Catchment AI&M Project. It comprises an external ring ditch 35m across with an internal mound 21m across. A large pit is visible in the centre of the mound which may not be original but due to robbing in antiquity. The monument includes two bowl barrows and a disc barrow 960 metres north west of Crab Farm. The bowl barrows range in diameter between 22 metres and 30 metres and between 0.4 metres and 1 metre in height. Surrounding the mound is are quarry ditches from which material was excavated during their construction. The ditches have become infilled over the years and now survive as buried features 3 metres wide. A linear feature visible on aerial photographs passes close to both barrows on the south west side. The disc barrow is no longer visible on the ground but can be seen on aerial photographs, and part excavation by the National Trust in 1988 showed that it survives as a ring ditch, 4.2 metres wide and 1.7 metres deep, forming a circle about 60 metres in diameter. <9>

Record last edited

Dec 21 2023 7:42PM