| Summary : A saucer barrow, part of a linear group (see associated monuments) lying just to the north of the main Oakley Down barrow group (SU 01 NW 19). Listed by RCHME as WImborne St Giles 114 and by Grinsell as Wimborne St Giles 37a, it was described by RCHME as mound almost levelled by ploughing, measuring 60 feet in diameter and surrounded by a shallow ditch and outer bank, both 15 feet across. The largest of the barrows in this linear sub-group of the Oakley Down barrows, it appears to overlie a lynchet belonging to a "Celtic" field system (SU 01 NW 71). The barrow has been suggested by Grinsell to be that depicted as no. 26 by Hoare on his plan of the Oakley Down barrows. If the identification is correct, it is worth noting that Hoare appears to portray this as a disc barrow, with a small central mound surrounded by a berm, ditch and outer bank. Although numbered by Hoare, it is not immediately apparent that it was excavated by him. Grinsell claims that it was "probably opened by Hoare without result". However, Hoare refers to a few barrows on the west side of the A354, two of which were dug into and may be tentatively identified with his barrows 26 and 27, though they are not so numbered in the text. If so, this saucer or disc barrow can perhaps be identified with the one described by Hoare as follows: "On the same side of the road [as Wor Barrow], but nearer to Woodyates Inn, is another small tumulus, in which the interment had been disturbed". |