Details

The monument includes a bell barrow forming part of the Poor Lot round barrow
cemetery, situated within the South Dorset Downs on the lower part of a
north facing slope within the valley of the South Winterbourne. This is one of
44 barrows known to occur within the Winterbourne Poor Lot cemetery.
The bell barrow has a central mound composed of earth and chalk with a maximum
diameter of 28m and a maximum height of c.4m. The mound is surrounded by a
berm or gently sloping platform which is 3m wide and a ditch from which
material was quarried during the construction of the monument. This has become
infilled over the years, but survives as a buried feature c.4m 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.

The Poor Lot cemetery survives well as one of very few examples in Dorset
known to exhibit such a wide range of different forms of round barrow,
including some of the rare barrow types, such as disc and pond barrows. The
cemetery is unusually situated within a valley bottom.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset: Volume I, (1970), 463
Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset: Volume I, (1970), 463
Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset: Volume I, (1970), 463
Grinsell, L V, 'Procs Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Soc.' in Dorset Barrows, (1959), 147

Source: Historic England