Monument record MDO6646 - Ditched Bowl barrow, Nottington, Weymouth

The site of a ditched bowl barrow. Excavations in 1938 revealed a primary cremation and two other burials, thought to be later insertions. The barrow was destroyed in 1947, and the site is built over.

A bowl barrow, 28(?) paces in diameter and 45 ft (?) in height. Situated on clay and opened by K C Selby. The barrow contained a primary cremation with a bronze dagger and abundant charcoal. <4> SY 66778245, Weymouth 20. Nottington Barrow ?30 paces diameter and 4ft high, was excavated by K C C Selby and G Kirk in 1938. A probably primary cremation was found thinly covered with charcoal and accompanied by fragments of a bronze riveted dagger. Beneath the cremation and separated from it by a thin layer of clay, were the remains of the funeral pyre, and above the cremation was a large mass of carbonised wood. Parts of two intrusive skeletons were found 1.5 ft below the top of the mound. Barrow destroyed 1947. <5> Situated on a fairly level ground this barrow has been destroyed by the building of a bungalow, at the SW corner of which, what appears to be the remains of the barrow have been so much mutilated that its extent cannot be traced with any certainty, but the slight mound which is visible maybe the result of digging the foundations of the building. <6> Complete destroyed. No trace remains. <7> Additional bibliography. <4> <8> The cruciform trench, with a wider square hole in the centre, is seen on an aerial photograph of the barrow taken in 1947 (RAF 1821-4459), since it seems improbable that the excavation trench would have remained open for nine years if it had been left alone, the possibility has been suggested that the trenches were used as an air raid shelter by the occupants of the adjacent houses. The barrow and the excavation trench are clearly visible on aerial photographs taken in 1946 and the site was digitally plotted during the South Dorset Ridgeway Mapping Project. <9>

Record last edited

Jun 27 2022 3:28PM