Monument record MDO7817 - Beacon Hill, Morden

A banked sub-circular or slightly oval feature to the east of West Morden is visible as an earthwork on 1940s aerial photographs. The feature is not clearly defined but may comprise an oval mound of around 11m by 16m. The suggestion of a faint outer ditch is visible on its south and west sides. A sub-circular area of fresh banked earth on the summit of the mound is visible on a 1945 aerial photograph, with what appears to be a zig zag trench running through it. This possibly continues down the eastern slope of the mound. The feature is recorded as a possible Bronze Age barrow re-used as the site of a post medieval beacon and subsequently as the site of a Second World War practice trench (NRHE Hob UID 457308). It was digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM project.

On Beacon Hill is a large steep sided roughly circular mound with a flat top 18ft. in diameter. Noted as a beacon in an 18th century estate map of Isaac Taylor. A 1939-45 slit trench has cut into the top revealing nothing but clay. <2> Mound which may be the site of a beacon. Listed by H T White as being the site of a beacon, number 19. <3> SY 90959532. Beacon Mound, possibly incorporating a round barrow about 45ft. diameter and 6ft. high with steep sides and flat top about 18ft. across. The mound is situated on the summit of Beacon Hill about 200ft. OD. and is visible from all directions over a large area. A modern slit trench shows clay earth in section. Noted as beacon by I. Taylor (Estate Map 1773-77). <4> SY 90969531. A mound on the summit of Beacon Hill as described by RCHM (4), but now in dense woodland. Probably a barrow used as a beacon site. Diameter 16.0 metres, height 1.6 metres. Surveyed at 1:2500 on M.S.D. <5> A banked sub-circular or slightly oval feature to the east of West Morden is visible as an earthwork on 1940s aerial photographs <6>. The feature is not clearly defined but may comprise an oval mound of around 11m by 16m. The suggestion of a faint outer ditch is visible on its south and west side, possibly the outer ditch of a Bronze Age barrow, but it is not clear enough to be certain. A sub-circular area of fresh banked earth on the summit of the mound is visible on a 1945 aerial photograph, with what appears to be a zig zag trench running through it. This possibly continues down the eastern slope of the mound. The feature is recorded as a possible Bronze Age barrow re-used as the site of a post medieval beacon and subsequently as the site of a Second World War practice trench (NRHE Hob UID 457308). It was digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM project.

Record last edited

Oct 13 2023 1:50PM