Details

The monument, which falls into two separate areas of protection, includes
two bowl barrows situated on a plateau on Turner's Puddle Heath, to the
north east of Cloud's Hill. The barrows form part of a dispersed group of
three similar monuments recorded by the Ordnance Survey in 1952. The
southern of these has since been levelled and perhaps destroyed, and is
not included within the scheduling.
The north western of the two surviving barrows has a mound composed of
earth, sand and turf, with maximum dimensions of 22m in diameter and about
2m in height. The south eastern barrow has been partly truncated by the
road to the south. It has maximum dimensions of 22m from east to west, by
12.5m from north to south and is about 1.5m in height. The mound is
surmounted by a triangulation pillar. The mound has yielded a flint knife
and dagger, both of Early Bronze Age form and which are now held at Dorset
County Museum. These finds were made when a flagpole was inserted into the
central area of the mound; the flagpole has since been removed. A salvage
investigation of part of the barrow was made by Lt Col C D Drew during the
construction of the road to the south in the spring of 1952. This
retrieved a pollen sequence which suggested that the barrow was
constructed after the clearance of woodland and the subsequent
establishment of grass and heather.
Each mound is surrounded by a ditch from which material was quarried
during the construction of the monument. The ditches have become infilled
over the years, but each will survive as a buried feature about 2m wide,
including that section beneath the road south of the south eastern barrow.
All fence posts and the surface of the tarmac road to the south of the
south eastern barrow are excluded from the scheduling, although the
ground beneath them is included.

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 some disturbance to the south eastern example, the two bowl
barrows on Turner's Puddle Heath, 480m and 540m north east of Lawrence of
Arabia's Cottage, survive well. They are known to 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), 453
Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset: Volume I, (1970), 453-4
Piggott, S, Dimbleby, G, 'Proc Dorset Nat Hist Arch Soc' in A Bronze Age Barrow on Turner's Puddle Heath, , Vol. 75, (1953), 34-5

Source: Historic England