Bowls Barrow (or all that is left of it) is to the right of the small group of trees, with tank tracks running right round it.
Found this on the Modern Antiquarian, in a post from Rhiannon. Grateful thanks:
"... the scale and nature of military interference is startling. [C.C.] most vividly remembers his first visit to Bowl's Barrow, one of the most important spot sites in the SPTA, where he found recent tracked-vehicle marks scouring deeply through its ditch and the "no-driving" sign squashed into the mud of the new track."
(from Managing for Effective Archaeological Conservation: The Example of Salisbury Plain Military Training Area. By Roy Canham and Christopher Chippindale, in Journal of Field Archaeology, Vol. 15, No. 1 (Spring, 1988), pp. 53-65.)
From Wilts CC site:
| Details | |
| Long barrow known as Bodelus Beorh in AD968 opened by W Cunnington 1800 & 1803, John Thurnam 1864, and W & H Cunnington 1885-6. Primary deposit of 14 skulls, 5 or more with bones in disorder. Remains of 7 or more oxen and a block of bluestone. 3 intrusive skeletons appear to be Saxon. Aubrey Burl argues that the bluestone was transported to the area by glaciation as Cunnington found the stone in 1801 and therefore it cannot have come from Stonehenge as earlier postulated. | |
| Sources | |
| Victoria County History 1 1 141(1) 1957 Grinsell, L.V. | |
| Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine Vol 24, p104-25 1889 Cunnington, William (Jnr) | |
| Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine Vol 41, p172-4 | |
| Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine Vol 42, p431-7 | |
| Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine Vol 47, p267 | |
| Archaeological Journal Vol 77, p82 | |
| The Ancient History of Wiltshire Vol 1, 87 1812 Hoare, Sir R.C. | |
| Devizes Museum Cat2 22 Nos X90-1 1911 Cunnington, M E; Goddard, E H | |
| Salisbury Museum 1934.68; 1934.73 1934 Salisbury Museum Unfortunately I'm rather far from the National Library, and so can't easily check references -- doers anybody know this one? If it really is 16 pp long, it may have some useful info in it....... Cunnington, B H, 1924, The Blue Stone from BolesBarrow, Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine, 442, 431-47 |
I have just been told by Ellie, the Librarian & Archivist, that Wiltshire Heritage Museum Library,at Devizes, does still possess a copy. So, it seems, does Avebury Alexander Keiller Museum Library, and this can be consulted by prior arrangement with the Curator, Ros Cleal.
ReplyDeleteIt is probably also in Chippenham Wiltshire Studies Centre.
I will (excuse the pun) dig out what I have on the current condition of Boles Barrow in the S.P.T.A. Much has been done to improve its plight since 1988, almost exclusively thanks to the sterling efforts of the then Conty Archaeologist, Roy Canham, with his tremendous work with The Army.
ReplyDeleteRoy Canham says the mound is in much better condition now, having been cleared of scrub & debris, and
ReplyDeletehe believes now covered in mesh to exclude all digging vermin!He says it looks very good compared to its state 20 years back. There was a badger problem but he thinks that has now been dealt with.Certainly Richard Osgood [MOD Archaeologist] is working to exclude badgers from all SPTA long barrows.