MDE1025 - Bronze Age burial cairn on Heale Down (Monument)

The remains of a Bronze Age burial cairn are visible as a flat topped mound, bisected by a hedgeline. North of the hedge it survives to approximately 15 metres in diameter and 1.5 metres high; to the south it has been much reduced.

SS 6512 4643. A round barrow on Heale Down found by Whybrow 1963 visited by Grinsell 1969. Diameter 20 paces, height 4.5 feet. In corner of arable field but not itself ploughed. Hollow in centre; south part crossed by east to west field wall. [1] SS 6512 4641. A round barrow as described by Grinsell, the southern half on arable and 0.4 metres high. Surveyed at 1:2500. [2] (SS 6512 4641) Tumulus (NR) (Depicted but not described on Ordnance Survey 2 inch Drawing 1804-5 and Ordnance Survey 1 inch 1st Ed. [3] SS 6512 4641. The remains of a flat-topped cairn are prominently situated on the summit of Heale Down at about 296 metres Ordnance Datum. It has been bisected by an east to west hedge bank (1.7 metres high and up to 2 metres wide) which has a ditch (1.5 metres wide) on both sides. The field to the north of the hedge has been ploughed but the furze covered cairn has largely escaped damage. The precise dimensions of the cairn here are difficult to ascertain but along the hedge it is about 15 metres across and some 1.5 metres high. The field to the south of the hedge is arable and the cairn has been reduced to a semicircular rise 21 metres in diameter and 0.5 metres high. The cairn is not depicted on the 1889 Ordnance Survey map [4] although a Triangulation Station is shown in its position some 5 metres to the north of the hedgebank. The area is enclosed but is depicted as rough grassland and furze. The 1904 Ordnance Survey map [5] also does not depict the cairn nor the Triangulation Station (its absence may account for the hollow noted by [1]). The area to the south of the hedge was then cultivated. Published Survey 1:2500 (1974) Revised. [6] Monument record reviewed as part of NRHE to HER pilot project. [7,8]