Monument record MDO7200 - Bowl barrow in Higher Belt Coppice, one of the Bloxworth Down Group, Bloxworth

Round barrow cemetery containing 11 individual barrows, situated on the upper part of Bloxworth Down. The two southern barrows are aligned east-west and occupy the highest position. The barrows each have a mound composed of earth and chalk with maximum dimensions between 16-17 metres in diameter and 0.5-0.75 metres in height. The mounds are each surrounded by infilled ditches which survive as buried features. To the north are a cluster of five bowl barrows. These each have a mound with maximum dimensions of between 10-18 metres in diameter and 0.2-0.3 metres in height. These also have infilled quarry ditches. Further to the north are a group of four barrows aligned east-west along a natural terrace. The eastern example is a disc barrow which has a central mound 25 metres in diameter which is surrounded by a berm, quarry ditch and outer bank which produce an overall diameter of 47 metres. The barrow has been reduced by ploughing, but the central mound remains visible as a chalky spread 25 metres in diameter and approximately 0.3 metres high. The ditch has become infilled but survives as a buried feature, the outer bank is still visible as a chalky spread about 1 metre wide. This barrow was partly excavated in 1854 and a primary cremation burial was recovered with a collared urn, along with a pair of bone tweezers and a variety of amber and faience beads. The three bowl barrows to the west each have a mound of between 12-15 metres in diameter and between 0.25-0.3 metres in height. Some Late Bronze Age pottery was recovered from the mound of the central barrow. Scheduled.

Barrow "K" ['A' : SY 87679623; 'B': SY 87699621; 'C' : SY 87729623; 'D' : SY 87689625; 'E' : SY 87709628.] TUMULI [OE] (1) 'G' : SY 8765967; 'H' : SY 87679626; 'J' : SY 87709624; 'K' : SY 87669619 'L' : SY 87709620; 'M' : SY 87729626; 'F' : SY 87639628. 'A' - 'D', 'H' - 'M', bowl barrows with diameters ranging from 10-23 paces and heights from 6 inches to 6 feet. LBA sherds were found on 'H' by L.V.Grinsell in 1954. 'G' and 'F' are probable bowl barrows 'E' is a disc-barrow with a mound, 48 feet in diameter and 2 1/2 feet high. The berm is 33 feet wide and the ditch and outer bank each 12 feet wide. Excavation revealed a primary cremation and eight bi-conical amber beads, six or seven segmented faience beads and bone tweezers beneath a collared urn. Intrusive burials of man, woman and two children at least three of which were crouched were near the top. Finds in the British Museum. (8) Sitings as above except 'H' : SY 87679628; 'K' : SY 87669620; 'L' : SY 87709619; 'G' : SY 87649628; 'F' : SY 87639629. A group of twelve barrows comprising eight definite bowl barrows - 'A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'H', 'J', 'K', and 'L'; three probable bowl barrows - 'F', 'G' and 'M'; a disc-barrow - 'E'. The group is visible on air-photographs. 'F', 'H' and 'M' are ploughed out; the bank and ditch of 'E' is only partly visible. A 25" survey has been made. (11) Barrow "K" - See attached concordance of barrows on Bloxworth Down as listed by Grinsell and RCHM. See plan (authy 4) (7,13) ('A': SY 87679623; 'B': SY 87699621; 'C': SY 87729623; 'D': SY 87689625; 'E'; SY 87709628; 'G': SY 87659628; 'J': SY 87709623; 'K': SY 87669619; 'L': SY 87699619) Tumuli (NR) (12a) Save for 'K' and 'L', the majority of this group is currently inaccessible. It is notable that air photographs (J) and (K) show a field system SY 89 NE 18 (now ploughed out) where some field boundaries terminated on barrows (see sketch plan). Barrows 'A', 'B' and 'C', visible in corn. 'D'. Not visible; clear on air photographs: probably ploughed out. 'E'. Not visible, disc form clear on air photographs, with possible excavation mark in the central mound. 'F' and 'G'. Not visible, but one mound surveyed by Authority (3) and lettered 'G'. Accepted as two barrows by Grinsell, and R.C.H.M. ('ploughed flat'). O.S. air photographs show the distinct cropmark of the ditch of one bowl (?) barrow, about 35 metres overall diameter and centred at SY 87629628. The cropmark of the mound is visible as two separate parts, the result of a bisecting trench, about 8 metres wide, set in a N.E./S.W. direction. Since the barrow was not portrayed on the O.S. 25" 1901, it seems that little was then visible and the excavation trench was probably of 19th century origin. 'H'. Not visible; clear as ditch cropmark on (k), faint on (j). 'J'. Not visible, but surveyed by Authority (3), and clear on (k). 'K'. Diameter 17.3 metres with traces of a ditch on east, 2 metres wide, 0.1 metres deep, originally surveyed by Authority (11). 'L'. Diameter 12.2 metres with traces of ditch on south-east 2 metres wide, 0.1 metres deep, originally surveyed by Authority (11). 'M'. Not visible, and no air photographs evidence. 'N'. Not visible, cropmark of possible irregularly spread mount appears on (j) The diameters of 'k' and 'L' correspond with those depicted on 1:2500 on M.S.D. Barrows, other than 'A', 'B' and 'C' which are clearly extant, have been retained on the M.S.D. pending future investigation. (15) The site of this round barrow is visible as a low earthworks on lidar imagery and cropmarks on aerial photographs. It was digitally recorded during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM.

Record last edited

Nov 6 2023 11:22AM