Group of three bowl barrows on Creech Heath 650m ESE of Dodson's Farm, forming part of the Creech Heath round barrow cemetery

Reasons for Designation

Round barrow cemeteries date to the Bronze Age (c.2000-700 BC). They comprise closely-spaced groups of up to 30 round barrows - rubble or earthen mounds covering single or multiple burials. Most cemeteries developed over a considerable period of time, often many centuries, and in some cases acted as a focus for burials as late as the early medieval period. They exhibit considerable diversity of burial rite, plan and form, frequently including several different types of round barrow, occasionally associated with earlier long barrows. Where large scale investigation has been undertaken around them, contemporary or later "flat" burials between the barrow mounds have often been revealed. Round barrow cemeteries occur across most of lowland Britain, with a marked concentration in Wessex. In some cases, they are clustered around other important contemporary monuments such as henges. Often occupying prominent locations, they are a major historic element in the modern landscape, whilst their diversity and their longevity as a monument type provide important information on the variety of beliefs and social organisation amongst early prehistoric communities. They are particularly representative of their period and a substantial proportion of surviving or partly-surviving examples are considered worthy of protection.

The three bowl barrows on Creech Heath 650m ESE of Dodson's Farm survive comparatively well and will contain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to the cemetery and the landscape in which it was constructed.

Details

The monument includes a group of three bowl barrows orientated east-west along a sandstone ridge of Creech Heath in the Isle of Purbeck, overlooking the Purbeck Hills to the south. The barrows form part of a cemetery of five round barrows on Creech Heath. The barrows each have a mound composed of earth, sand and turf, with dimensions of between 10m and 23m and between c.0.5m-2m in height. Each mound is surrounded by a ditch from which material was quarried during the construction of the monument. The ditch of the eastern barrow is visible as an earthwork 2m wide and c.0.5m deep. The ditches of the other two barrows have become infilled over the years, but will survive as buried features c.1m wide.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features, considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

28318

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset: Volume I, (1970), 442

Other
Mention destruction of barrow,

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