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Bere DownLong Barrow
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This once great long barrow is now very low and difficult to see, I assume it's been ploughed for many years. The current farmer seems to be trying to protect it's whereabouts by placing a series of marker poles around it, but sadly the damage has been done. Close by are several round barrows, two of which I have included, a third is just visible in a dense hedge. One major bonus on this visit to what could have been a disappointing site was the finding of a beautifully crafted discoid flint scraper.It is 4.5cm wide and 5.5cm long with one very sharp edge and a blunt end. |
Posted by formicaant15th October 2007ce Edited 17th October 2007ce |
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Details of Long Barrow on Pastscape A Neolithic long barrow located on Bere Down. The barrow mound measures up to 55 metres by 24 metres and between 0.5 to 0.75 metres high. It is associated with 5 sarsen stones which were discovered during ploughing, and may relate to a chamber within the mound. The barrow was later incorporated into a prehistoric field boundary. Scheduled. (SY 82989725) Long Barrow (NR) (1) Long Barrow, possibly chambered (SY 82989725), lies on Bere Down, about 200 ft above Ordnance Datum, just below the crest of a broad chalk ridge, on ground sloping gently to NW, W and S, it is only seen in silhouette at close range from N and S. On a bearing of 70o, it is 176 ft long, 65 ft wide in the middle where widest, and some 7 ft high at the E end and 6 ft at the W. A slight terrace, some 45 ft wide, parallel to the barrow on the S, probably marks the site of the ditch. The centre of the mound has been cut into from the S and the spine hollowed for 114 ft from the W end. Five sarsen boulders, none more than 2 1/2 ft long and 1 1/4 ft deep, lie scattered, two on the hollowed spine and three in the S excavation where there is a large heap of flints. The barrow was used as a 'Celtic' field boundary (see SY 89 NW 12), and lynchets run up to it, crossing the line of any ditch that may have existed on the N. The mound has been damaged by rabbits and ploughing. (2) SY 829972. Bere Regis long barrow (Wessex No 155). Listed. (3) Long barrow on Bere Down, ploughed and spread but still visible from a distance, although unsurveyable. (4) SY 82989725. A long barrow, generally as described by R.C.H.M. (2), appears as a gently-sloping ridge, but from the north where the air photograph (a) shows that the barrow once formed the northern boundary of a field of the prehistoric system (SY 89 NW 12), it merges into the hillside with but a minimum of height (0.1 metres). Its length is now 50.0 metres, its width 15.0 metres maximum, and height from the south (downhill) side 1.2 metres. Resurveyed at 1:2500 on M.S.D. (5) The barrow mound now measures a maximum of 55 metres in length, 24 metres in width and between 0.5 to 0.75 metres in height. Scheduling revised 09/03/01. (6) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SOURCE TEXT -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ( 1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date) OS 6" 1968 ( 2) Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England) 1970 An inventory of historical monuments in the County of Dorset. Volume two : south-east [in three parts] Pt 3 No 66 Page(s)431 ( 3) by Paul Ashbee 1970 The earthen long barrow in Britain : an introduction to the study of the funerary practice and culture of the Neolithic people of the third millennium Page(s)162 ( 4) Oral information, correspondence (not archived) or staff comments ( 5a) Aerial photograph APs(OS/80/021/161-2 18.4.80) ( 5) Field Investigators Comments F1 JGB 15-MAY-81 ( 6) Scheduled Monument Notification EH Scheduled Monument Revision, 09-MAR-2001 |
Posted by Chance9th March 2012ce |
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This long barrow is on a spur of Bere Down, and overlooks the Bere valley below. It's about 55m long but has been reduced to less than a metre high. Five sarsens protrude from the middle of the mound, so it's a bit more exciting than your average ploughed longbarrow. The area is liberally scattered with groups of later round barrows. (facts from the sm record on Magic) |
Posted by Rhiannon4th January 2007ce Edited 14th March 2007ce |
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