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Old Barrow

Barrow / Cairn Cemetery

Nearest Town:South Molton (14km SW)
OS Ref (GB):   SS84083244 / Sheet: 181
Latitude:51° 4' 44.34" N
Longitude:   3° 39' 18.06" W

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Details of barrow on Pastscape

[SS 84153241] Old Barrow (NR) Withypoole No 7, a bowl barrow 13 paces diameter and 2.5 ft. high with a hollow in the centre. It is enclosed by a bank with outer ditch which is not concentric with the barrow and is clearly a tree-clump enclosure, probably 18th century. (2)Scheduled. (3)
Old Barrow is at SS 84083244, the feature has been omitted from the OS6 inch and the name erroneously applied to a pit. It appears to be a very robbed bowl barrow, 0.9m high the bank mentioned by Grinsell is not well defined and has only slight traces of an outer ditch. Although clearly later than the barrow it is not certainly a tree-ring, and it may have been formed when the barrow was robbed. (See GPs AO/65/192/5 & 6).Published 1:2500 survey revised. (4)SS 84093244. Withypoole 7. Old Barrow listed, details as Authy 2.Visited by Grinsell 25th May 1958. (5)
[SS 84083244] Old Barrow (NR) (6)
Old Barrow, a prehistoric barrow, is centred at SS 84083244 at the eastern end of the ridge forming Old Barrow Down. It is a circular earth and stone mound, 20.9m in diameter and 1.2m high and has been heavily disturbed by robbing or excavation trenches. These appear as two, sharp-sided, concentric circular cuttings 1.5m wide and 0.3m deep. Their shallowness suggests that they are less likely to be stone robbing trenches and more likely to be the result of an antiquarian attempt to define a kerb within the monument. Such an event does not appear to be documented but has been noted elsewhere on Exmoor (see SS 83 SW 2 and SS 73 NW 10 (D)).
Aspect: Old Barrow has extensive views in all directions.Vegetation: Grass with some reeds. (7)
The probable Bronze Age round barrow known as Old Barrow is clearly visible as an earthwork on aerial photographs of the 1940s onwards.On the aerial photographs available to the survey the monument can be seen as a mound circa 10 metres in diameter with evidence of disturbance visible as an off-centre pit about 4.5 metres in diameter. The mound appears to be enclosed by a narrow bank which in turn is surrounded by a ditch less than 1.5 metres wide, and finally an outer bank. It is possible these are also evidence of antiquarian disturbance as suggested by authority 7 above. (8-11)
Chance Posted by Chance
17th December 2014ce