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Round Barrow(s)
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Details of cemetery on Pastscape
Winterbourne Poor Lot is a large Bronze Age round barrow cemetery, comprising a number of different types including bell barrows, disc barrows and bowl barrows, along with a possible hut circle. The dispersed cemetery is unusually situated within a valley bottom, split on each side by the A35 main road, and is believed to contain at least 44 barrows. Many of the barrows have suffered plough damage and some are no longer visible. The cemetery itself is clearly visible from the chalk ridges to the north and south, where further groups of barrows are known to survive. The core of the cemetery is situated within an area of 3 hectares on a natural terrace in the hillside, close to the bottom of the valley. Many of the barrows within this group are inter-visible and individual settings suggest that they were carefully located to provide views other neighbouring barrow groups. These bowl barrows have mounds composed of earth, flint and chalk. Each is surrounded by a ditch, which was used to gather material for construction of the barrows, though some of these ditches have since become infilled. The largest barrow in this group measures about 35 metres in diameter and 2.5 metres in height. The barrow cemetery is crossed by a parish boundary between Kingston Russell and Winterbourne Abbas. There are traces of old field banks running parallel to the modern field boundary within the south western area of the cemetery. At least two of the barrows were excavated by R. J. C. Atkinson between 1952 and 1953. One of these barrows (referred to as 'Barrow G') had a ring bank enclosing a circle of 8 small pits, covered by a flint pavement 22 feet in diameter which extended as a pathway through the entrance on the south east side. This was flanked by a pair of pits. Winterbourne Poor Lot barrows are now in the care of English Heritage.
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Posted by Chance
27th March 2016ce
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