Sheep Down

Barrow / Cairn Cemetery
SY60728903

Also known as:

Monument No. 452384 and Winterborne steepleton 16 - 20

Nearest town:

Dorchester (8km ENE)

OS reference:

SY60728903

OS sheet:

194

Latitude:

50° 41' 56.31 N

Longitude:

2° 33' 22.5 W

Added to TMA by

formicaant

Images (3)
Fieldnotes (1)
Miscellaneous (2)

Images

Image of Sheep Down (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by formicaant

Looking north at the twin and single bowl barrows, Big Wood barrows are in the background.

Image credit: Mike Rowland 21/03/2008.

formicaant Mar 21, 2008

A single bowl barrow, split from the main group by a road.

Image credit: Mike Rowland 21/03/2008.

formicaant Mar 21, 2008

The three largest barrows in the group. The right and centre are a double bowl barrow.

Image credit: Mike Rowland 10/03/2008.

formicaant Mar 9, 2008

Articles

Sheep Down

Barrow / Cairn Cemetery

formicaant Mar 9, 2008

There are 7 barrows in this group which is to the north of Sheep down long barrow and south of the Big wood group. The three largest are in the centre and include a rare double bowl barrow with a figure of eight ditch. The cemetary straddles the road to Weymouth and is part of the south Dorset ridgeway group of barrows.

Sheep Down

Barrow / Cairn Cemetery

CARL Oct 17, 2014

I was able to spot 3 barrows when driving along the minor road to the east. They appeared as rough grass covered mounds.

Access to the barrows can be made via a farm track leading from the road.

Sheep Down

Barrow / Cairn Cemetery

Chance May 28, 2014

Details of barrows on Pastscape

(’A’ – SY 60688893) Tumulus (NR). (’B’ – SY 60688901; ‘C’ – SY 60718904; ‘D’ – SY 60758902; ‘E’ – SY 60868906) Tumuli (NR).
Five round barrows, including a double bowl and a pond barrow lie above apparent limit of ‘Celtic’ fields on a broad spur running North East from the Ridgeway at about 460 ft above OD.
‘A’ Bowl (60688893) on slight South East slope. diam 35 ft ht 2 1/2 ft Damaged by excavation.
‘B’ Pond barrow (60708901) 93 yds North North East of ‘A’ Central depression, diam 35 ft, depth 2 ft, surrounded by bank 10 ft to 12 ft wide and 5 ins high. Excavation by H G Wakefield for the commission in 1947-8 and by R J C Atkinson in 1950 showed that a pavement of flints gathered from the top-soil largely covered the depression. Beneath and around the pavement were thirty-five pits cut into the chalk subsoil, in some cases through the pavement. Seventeen pits contained Early Bronze Age urns, two held an urn and an inhumation, one held a urn and a cremation, seven contained only cremations, and eight were
filled with soil alone. The whole site had been stripped before the pavement was laid, the pits dug, and the bank built.
‘C’ Ditched double bowl (60728904) immediately adjacent on North North East of ‘B’. diams of mounds 59 ft and 55 ft, hts 5 ft and 4 1/2 ft; joined by slight bank and surrounded by hour- glass shaped ditch 12 ft wide. Partially sectioned during excavation of ‘B’, the ditch was just over 2 ft deep and probably dug before ‘B’ was constructed. Bronze Age sherds probably of bucket urn found on south West of W mound.
‘D’ Bowl (?) (60758902) 30 yds South east of E mound of ‘C’ Diam 50 ft, ht 3 1/2 ft.
‘E’ Bowl (?) (60878907) on summit of spur 130 yds North East of ‘D’. Only slight rise remains. (2-3)

‘A’ SY 60698893. Bowl barrow in arable, ploughed-down. Diameter 10.5m., height 0.4m.-0.7m. No visible ditch.
‘B’ Ploughed out. No remains.
‘C’ SY 60708904. Twin bowl barrows, with ditch 6.0m. wide on south side only, possibly, but not certainly, common to both. Each barrow is 18.0m in diameter and 2.0m. high, in arable but not ploughed.
‘D’ SY 60758902. Bowl barrow in arable, not ploughed over. Diameter 17.0m., height 1.7m. No visible ditch.
‘E’ SY 60868906. Barrow in arable, ploughed almost flat. Diameter approximately 20.0m., height 0.2m. No visible ditch.
A, C, D, E Re-surveyed at 1:2500 on MSD. Detail of B deleted on 1:2500 MSD. (4)