Summary : A bowl barrow, one of a group located imemdiately northwest of Maiden castle (SY 68 NE 7), only just outside the ramparts. It is listed by Grinsell as Winterborne St martin 34b and by RCHME as Winterborne St Martin 140. In 1980, the Ordnance Survey described it as a mound 15 metres in diameter and 0.6 metres high with no visible traces of a surrounding ditch. Scheduled. This barrow has been identified by both RCHME and by Grinsell with one of a group of barrows excavated circa 1840 by J Sydenham. Sydenham's barrow number 7 was described by him as follows: "A small barrow contiguous to the outer agger of the stupendous earthwork, Maiden Castle...This barrow had no cist: there were three interments by simple inhumation on the floor of the barrow. Near its summit was a small urn...decorated all over with the favourite zig-zag ornament of the antients. No bones, ashes, or other indications of an interment were found in immediate association with this urn". The vessel in question appears to be a Beaker, indicating an Early Bronze Age date at the latest for the barrow. This barrow was originally recorded as part of SY 68 NE 30. That record should be consulted for additional sources and information. |