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Sheep Down

Barrow / Cairn Cemetery

<b>Sheep Down</b>Posted by formicaantImage © Mike Rowland 21/03/2008.
Also known as:
  • Winterborne steepleton 16 - 20
  • Monument No. 452384

Nearest Town:Dorchester (8km ENE)
OS Ref (GB):   SY60728903 / Sheet: 194
Latitude:50° 41' 56.31" N
Longitude:   2° 33' 22.5" W

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<b>Sheep Down</b>Posted by formicaant <b>Sheep Down</b>Posted by formicaant <b>Sheep Down</b>Posted by formicaant

Fieldnotes

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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. formicaant Posted by formicaant
9th March 2008ce

Miscellaneous

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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.
Posted by CARL
17th October 2014ce

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)
Chance Posted by Chance
28th May 2014ce