Middle Brow earthwork

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1002310
Date first listed:: 24-Feb-1933

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1002310
Date first listed:: 24-Feb-1933

Location

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: East Sussex
District:: Lewes (District Authority)
Parish:: Westmeston
National Park:: SOUTH DOWNS
National Grid Reference:: TQ 33619 12213

Summary

Middle Brow Earthwork, 1.34km SSW of Westmeston Farm.

Reasons for Designation

Middle Brow Earthwork, 1.34km SSW of Westmeston Farm survives very well and has been shown by partial excavation to contain important information relating to its construction. Despite the uncertainty concerning its original function it is clear that this earthwork is very unusual in form and for this reason must be considered as of interest. It is likely to contain further archaeological remains and environmental evidence relating to the monument and the landscape in which it was constructed. The presence of several archaeological features, which form separate scheduled monuments, in the vicinity enhance its significance. These include a round barrow to the west; a hillfort, a beacon and dewpond on Ditchling Beacon to the north-west; and a round barrow cemetery and Anglo-Saxon barrow field to the north-east.

History

See Details.

Details

This record was the subject of a minor enhancement on 27 November 2014. The record has been generated from an "old county number" (OCN) scheduling record. These are monuments that were not reviewed under the Monuments Protection Programme and are some of our oldest designation records.

The monument includes an earthwork denoted by a circular ditch with a hollow way running from a causeway on the north side. It is situated on an east facing slope near Big Bottom on the northern edge of the South Downs. The circular ditch measures 0.6m deep and 3.6m wide and encloses an area of approximately 25m across. On the north side a causeway leads 5m over the ditch to an ill-defined hollow way, which measures about 4m across. The hollow way runs northwards for a distance of about 55m, at which point it is crossed by a more substantial earthen bank running northwest to southeast. This is probably a boundary bank. The monument was surveyed in 1914 and partially excavated in 1957, which found no substantive dating evidence. However the excavation indicated that the enclosing ditch was originally continuous, and that the causeway and hollow way were later features. A number of flint implements were found but are not thought to have been associated with the earthwork. The monument is likely to represent the remains of a platform barrow although no burial remains have been uncovered

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: ES 50
Legacy System:: RSM - OCN

Sources

Other
East Sussex HER MES2061. NMR TQ31SW17. PastScape 403065.

Legal

This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.