| Summary : An oval-shaped mound on Stonehill Down, extant as an earthwork, has been variously described as an oval barrow, a long barrow and a bell barrow. RCHME field investigation for the Dorset Inventory described it as being 96 feet long, 64 feet wide and up to 9 feet high, surrounded by a sloping berm and then a ditch, the latter 1 foot deep and up to 20 feet wide. The ditch is interrupted by a causeway at each end. Since then it has suffered some plough damage but is still substantially extant. Classification remains a problem. Scheduled. |
More information : (SY 92338208) Tumulus (NR) (1)
A bell barrow at SY 92348208 on Stonehill Down is oval in plan
with its long axis in the direction of the hill.
It is 124 feet across overall from east to west by 110 feet
across north to south. The berm is vague and sloping.
Possibly opened by Austen (see SY 98 SW 50). (2)
A bell barrow which measures 28.0 metres east-west by 22.0 metres
north-south and has a height of 2.9 metres.
It is surrounded by a ditch 6.0 metres wide and 0.5 metre deep,
except for breaks on the east and west which give a causewayed
effect. It is flat topped and has a barely perceptible berm. (3)
An oval barrow, possibly a long barrow, is situated at SY
92348208 on Stonehill Down. Aligned almost E-W (88o), it is 96 ft
long, 64 ft wide and 9ft high from the north. It is very rounded
in profile, except for disturbance at the top, and is surrounded
by a sloping berm, narrow and indistinct on the sides but well-
marked and up to 8ft wide at either end. The ditch at most 1 ft.
deep, is 12ft. wide along the sides and 20ft. at the ends where
it is now interrupted by causeways 11ft. wide. The E. causeway,
on the main E-W. axis, is clearly original but the western
appears to be a later insertion; it dips as it crosses the ditch,
which ends irregularly on either side of it. (4)
SY 923821. Round barrow on Stonehill Down. Scheduled Dorset 709.(5)
Listed by Grinsell as either a long barrow (Church Knowle II) or
a bell barrow (Church Knowle 5b), details as above.
This turf-covered barrow has been extensively disturbed probably by excavation. It remains generally as described by RCHME in 1970 (4), although the north and south fringes of the mound have been cut back by the plough and the berm is barely traceable. The flat top is aub-rectangular in shape. The ditches have been utilized as farm tracks and their edges have become rather spread.
The ditch at the west end is now so ragged and indistinct that the causeway cannot be readily identified, however the causeway at the east end is clearly evident and well defined.
Although the elongated form and broken ditch support the identification as a short-long barrow, for OS purposes the less precise classification of "Tumulus" is to be preferred.(7) |