Monument record MDO7627 - Bronze Age round barrow, Holme Heath, East Holme

The excavated remains of a Bronze Age round barrow is visible as an earthwork on Lidar imagery of Holme Heath. It is one of a group of three round barrows located here (MDO7627-29). This barrow was explored in the 1860s by antiquarian J H Austen, who found an inverted urn in a cist covered with a stone slab, and a second urn higher in the mound.

Group of three Barrows, lying on a gravel spur running north from Battle Plain. They were all dug into in 1860. <1> Short report on J Austen's excavation. <2> Three barrows dug by J H Austen. The westernmost contained two urns. Nearby are some 120 small mounds. Three bracken covered bowl barrows, lettered A, B, & C. <4> 'A' Diameter 12.5 metres; height 1.4 metres. No sign of berm or ditch. Slight mutilation on top. 'B'. Diameter 12.0 metres; height 1.6 metres. No trace of berm or ditch. Mutilated on top. 'C' Diameter 10.0 metres; height 1.2 metres. Very slightly mutilated on top. No sign of berm or ditch. Small mounds mentioned in Authy 2 are natural gravel outcrops. (See SY 98 NW 42). <5> Three barrows, all excavated by Austen in 1860. To the north-west and south is a large group of small mounds (see SY 98 NW 42), surroundingbarrows (b) and © one apparently impinging on ©. Details of the barrows are as follows:- © SY 90648528. Bowl barrow 27 feet diameter by 2½ feet high. An inverted urn, probably primary, lay in a cist cut into the subsoil and covered with a sandstone slab. A secondary urn lay 'Unprotected' 1½ feet to the south and 1 foot from the surface. This barrow is overlapped by one of the adjoining mounds, (SY 98 NW 42). <7> SY 907853. Three round barrows on Holme Lane Plantation. <8> The excavated remains of a Bronze Age round barrow, approximately 16.6.m in diameter, is visible as an earthwork on Lidar imagery of Holme Heath <11>. It is one of a group of three round barrows located here (MDO7627-29). A possible forth round barrow is located 80m to the south-west (MWX683) and may also be contemporary with them. This feature was digitally plotted during the Wild Purbeck Mapping Project.

Record last edited

Aug 15 2022 10:53AM