Monument record MDO8675 - Bell barrow, Lower Close, Deverel Close, Christchurch

Barrow excavated by C M Piggott in 1937 owing to its imminent destruction by gravel digging. The barrow may be visible as a shallow depression on a 1947 aerial photograph. This feature was digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

Site of LBA cemetery found 1937. <2> Bell-Barrow. Barrow excavated by C M Piggott in 1937 owing to its imminent destruction by gravel digging. Three pits revealed, two contained primary burials; the other had been refilled soon after digging. One of the primary pits contained an MBA cinerary urn with the cremated bones of two children; the other contained a cremated burial in the carbonised remains of a tree-trunk coffin, with a bronze pin, which possibly had been used to fasten the material in which the bones had been wrapped. Further excavation revealed that the southern half of the barrow had been used as an LBA urnfield with cremations totalling 90, of which only 70 were burials with urns. <2-7> The barrow may be visible as a shallow depression on a 1947 aerial photograph <8>. A shallow, sub-circular and irregular depression is visible on the east side of a trackway running thtrough the extractive area, broadly in the location of the barrow. The depression is 12m long by 5.5m wide and has a scarped edge on its east side. This feature was under housing on 2000 Google Earth imagery <9>. It was digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

Record last edited

Mar 20 2024 1:06PM