Deverel Barrow

Deverel Barrow, round barrow (SY/819990) 1 mile NE of Milborne (A354), between Dorchester and Blandford; between Bagber and Deverel Farms. Finds in Dorchester Museum and Bristol Museum.

This barrow has a modern wall built around it. It was a bowl-barrow, with a mound 3 ft. high and about 40 ft. in diameter.

It was excavated in 1824 by W.A. Miles (whose initials can be found carved on the two large stones on the mound). Near, but not at the centre, a cremation was found in a collared urn. This gives the barrow a date c. 1,700-1,400 BC. Later, c. 1,250 BC. over 20 cremations were added to the mound which may have been enlarged to receive them. Many of these had been deposited in Middle Bronze Age barrel and bucket-shaped urns: most were found in pits, with stone slabs covering them.