MMO498 - Bronze Age barrow west of Wood Barrow (Monument)

A Bronze Age barrow visible as a well-defined sub-circular earthwork measuring 15.4m by 14.4 in area with a minimum height of 0.2m. It has a slight, irregular rush-filled hollow which may be the result of an alleged antiquarian excavation.

A flat barrow, not quite circular, with a ditch of varying width. It was discovered in July 1974. [1] Grinsell describes the barrow as 20 paces in diameter and 1 foot high. [2] SS 7145 4254. A turf covered round barrow. This barrow is situated in rough grassland about 475 metres above Ordnance Datum some 170 metres west of Wood Barrow (MDE1283). There are extensive views; northwards to the Bristol Channel and the coast of South Wales, eastwards to Chains Barrow (MSO6836) and beyond, southwards to Five Barrows (MDE1191) and westwards across to the Chapman Barrows (MDE1061). The barrow appears as a well defined subcircular raised area 15.4 metres diameter east to west by 14.4 metres. Probing revealed some stone content but it is predominantly an earthen construction best seen around the northeast quadrant as a bank like ridge about 0.5 metres high. Around the southwest it reduces to a height of only 0.2 metres. In the centre is a slight, irregular, rush filled hollow about 0.2 metres deep. This, along with a turf covered 'tump' in the northnortheast, suggests the barrow may have been 'excavated' at sometime. 'Ditches' on the east and west sides appear to be modern drainage channels but they may mask an original feature now silted. [2-4] A barrow near Wood Barrow is said by Westcote to have been opened sometime before 1630 in search of a 'great brass pan' full of gold and silver. [5] The barrow described above is clearly visible on aerial photographs, approximately 170 metres west of Wood Barrow and 400 metres east of a group of three barrows sometimes referred to as the Longstone Barrow Group (see MDE1282). [6,7] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [8]