Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow situated on level ground on the western
side of Worgret Heath, a ridge dividing the valleys of the Rivers Frome and
Piddle. The barrow lies to the west of a dispersed cemetery of eight round
barrows on Worgret Heath.
The barrow was recorded by L V Grinsell in 1959 and by the Royal Commission
on the Historic Monuments of England in 1970. It has a mound composed of earth
sand and turf with maximum dimensions of 20m in diameter and about 0.5m in
height. The mound is surrounded by a ditch from which material was quarried
during the construction of the monument. The ditch has become infilled over
the years, but will survive as a buried feature about 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

Bowl barrows, the most numerous form of round barrow, are funerary monuments
dating from the Late Neolithic period to the Late Bronze Age, with most
examples belonging to the period 2400-1500 BC. They were constructed as
earthen or rubble mounds, sometimes ditched, which covered single or multiple
burials. They occur either in isolation or grouped as cemeteries and often
acted as a focus for burials in later periods. Often superficially similar,
although differing widely in size, they exhibit regional variations in form
and a diversity of burial practices. There are over 10,000 surviving bowl
barrows recorded nationally (many more have already been destroyed), occurring
across most of lowland Britain. Often occupying prominent locations, they are
a major historic element in the modern landscape and their considerable
variation of form and longevity as a monument type provide important
information on the diversity of beliefs and social organisations amongst early
prehistoric communities. They are particularly representative of their period
and a substantial proportion of surviving examples are considered worthy of
protection.

Despite animal burrowing, the bowl barrow on Worgret Heath, 320m north west of
High Tor survives 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
Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset: Volume I, (1970), 434
Grinsell, L V, 'Procs Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Soc.' in Dorset Barrows, (1959), 86

Source: Historic England