Monument record MDO7996 - Round Barrow in the Ballard Down Group, Ballard Down, Swanage

A Bronze Age bowl barrow on Ballard Down, one of a group of barrows in this area. It is about 7.5 m in diameter and 0.3 m high. It had been disturbed by 1940s activity.

'C' - SZ 02798125. No visible traces of this barrow; the site having apparently been built upon during the 1939-45 war. (see plan and profile). <2> Ballard Down Group of round barrows lie close together on the spine of the steep:sided chalk ridge. The area, built on the disturbed circa 1940, and now almost levelled by ploughing, contains numerous slight rises similarly marked by concentrations of stone rubble, making identification of barrows recorded here very difficult. The reasonably certain barrows are: 'C'-(87)-SZ 02798125. Bowl (?)barrow, (no diameter given) 1ft high. (Grinsell's Studland No 10 recorded as 11 paces diam x 1 1/2ft high). <4-5> Until recently, when it came to the National Trust, Ballard Down was regularly ploughed but it is now reverting to downland. Since the RCHM reported on this barrow group in 1970 (3) RCHM 84 (SZ 02728124) and RCHM 85 (SZ 02738123) have been ploughed out and only the faintest traces remain. RCHM 87 remains as described but is doubtfully a barrow. RCHM 86 (SZ 02748125) has a boundary stone on top, on the line of the fence seperating NTL from arable to the N, and only the N side is now surveyable. On grassland these 'features' are in bad condition, 160m OD. Surveyed at 1:2500. <5>

Record last edited

Apr 14 2023 7:20PM