MSO7740 - Quarter Barrow (Monument)

The remains of a Bronze Age barrow on Twitchen Plain. It has been severely robbed, leaving only a circular stony bank enclosing an area approximately 7.6 metres diameter. It has also been encroached on by thick coniferous plantation.

SS 8280 4748. Quarter Barrow (NR) [1] Oare 3. A gutted bowl barrow, 17 paces in diameter and 2 1/2 feet. high. [2] Only a rim of this barrow now remains. 1:2500 survey revised. [3] SS 8279 4748. Oare 3. Gutted bowl barrow listed as [2]. [4] The barrow was covered with oak trees which have all died within the past several years. During recent storms several of them have been uprooted, especially one which was in the centre of the barrow. As a result the centre of the barrow is disturbed and the uprooting has revealed a cist c.1 foot by 0.5 feet (although it could well be larger) formed by small stones standing on edge. As far as could be ascertained, nothing was contained within the cist, although items could have been removed. The land agent said that the tree had been down for several years. He was going to remove the dead wood but was advised that this would disturb the barrow even more and so he would leave it until further notice. [5] SS 82793 47491. The remains of this barrow are in poor condition. It is encroached on around the western side by thick coniferous plantation; stumps of old felled trees lie across it in the northeast and southwest; its southeast side is abutted by a fence and trackway and its interior is overgrown with reeds. This now makes it extremely difficult to assess and to obtain precise measurements. It is situated on Twitchen Plain about 405 metres above Ordnance Datum on a slight saddle on the Culbone Hill ridge roughly halfway between Yenworthy Common and Pittcombe Head. It is shown annotated Quarter Barrow in thick coniferous woodland on the 1889 Ordnance Survey map ([6]). The remains now consist of a circular turf and heather covered stoney bank about 2.2 metres to 3 metres, 0.4 metres high externally and 0.7 metres high internally, enclosing an area approximately 7.6 metres diameter. Several large stones are evident protruding through the bank and there is a break, about 1.7 metres wide in the south. Probing showed the central area was stoney and as far as can be ascertained under its present condition, it appears to have been robbed very cleanly (through the narrow break in the south) leaving a rather neat appearance to the inside of bank. There is no evidence of, or further information about a cist, revealed by uprooting of trees during storms and there is no evidence of the spoil. [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]