| Site Name: |
Chambered long barrow, Buckland Down, Buckland Dinham |
| Civil Parish: |
Buckland Dinham |
| Grid Ref: |
ST 7273 5173 (ST 75 SW) |
"At Madbarrow the Sherriffs Turn is still kept which shows it a place of remark". "Madborough on Buckland Down is a large round tumulus". Strachey records the barrow as "Modbarow" in his 1737 map. {1}
Skinner was informed that three upright stones placed in the form of a triangle and about as high as the Murtry stones (c10 ft) were removed from the barrow and broken up for road metalling sometime before his visit in 1819. {2}
As Strachey does not mention any stones it may that he was misinformed. {4}
Skinner's drawing does not look reliable. He was told that burials had been found there. The site is named "Big Tree" from an elm which stood on it until c1960. The mound now resembles a barrow but the S end may have been removed when the A362 was made. {5}
The barrow appears to be orientated due N-S. The N part survives as a well defined mound 0.8m high. Recent ploughing shows the mound to be composed of earth with a few small stones. {6}
A fragment of human tibia has been recovered from the surface of this barrow. {7}
A heavily burned chunk which was probably part of a larger core and a retouched flake, possibly a mesolithic double sided scraper was discovered on the mound of this ploughed long barrow on 5 January 1997. {10}
"A large round tumulus" when seen by Strachey in c1730. {11}
References:
| 1 |
Historical reference - Somerset County Record Office. Strachey mss 1737 DD.SH 107-8 |
| 2 |
Historical reference - BM Skinner mss 33681 folio 64 (17.02.1825) and 33682 folio 138 (03.05.1825) |
| 3 |
Sketch plan - BM Skinner mss 33653 folio 49, 155 (12.07.1819) |
| 4 |
Mention - Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological. Nat. History. Soc. Dennison, E 1985 "Somerset Archaeology 1984-5" vol 129, 4 |
| 5 |
Mention - Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological. Nat. History. Soc. Grinsell, L.V 1971 "Somerset Barrows, part 2" vol 115, 83 |
| 6 |
Detailed records - Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division 1978 ST75SW5 (SCC Planning Department) |
| 7 |
Mention - Archaeological Review, Council for British Archaeology group 13 1972 no 7, 15 |
| 8 |
Mention - Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological. Nat. History. Soc. Bulleid, A 1942 "Chambered Long Barrows..North Somerset" vol 87, 69-70 |
| 9 |
Mention - Daniel, G.E 1950 "Prehistoric Chamber Tombs of England and Wales", 232 |
| 10 |
Correspondence - Lewis, J to SMR (15.5.1997) |
| 11 |
Mention - McGarvie, M "John Strachey FRS and the antiquities of Wessex" Trans Ancient Monuments Society 27, 77-104 quoted in Grinsell, LV "Somerset Barrows: revisions 1971-87" Proc. Somerset Archaeological. Nat. History. Soc. 131 (1987), 22. |
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