Details

The monument includes a bell barrow, forming part of a round barrow cemetery
on Black Down, a gentle, north facing slope overlooking the South Winterbourne
valley, in an area of the South Dorset Downs.
The bell barrow was surveyed by L V Grinsell in 1959, when it consisted of a
central mound 7.5m wide and c.1.8m high, surrounded by a berm or gently
sloping platform 5.5m wide. The mound now has overall dimensions of 15m in
width and c.1.5m in height. Surrounding the mound is a ditch from which
material was quarried during the construction of the monument. This has become
infilled over the years, but will survive as a buried feature c.2m 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.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

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.

Despite some damage, the bell barrow 850m south east of Kingston Russell Farm
survives comparatively well and will contain archaeological and environmental
evidence relating to the monument and the landscape in which it was
constructed.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Grinsell, L V, 'Procs Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Soc.' in Dorset Barrows, (1959), 164

Source: Historic England