Round barrow 555m south-south-west of Turnpike Farm, West Littleton Down
West Littleton Down, Tormarton, South Gloucestershire
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Scheduled Monument
- List Entry Number:
- 1002477
- Date first listed:
- 01-Jan-1971
- Statutory Address:
- West Littleton Down, Tormarton, South Gloucestershire
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Location
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Scheduled Monument
- List Entry Number:
- 1002477
- Date first listed:
- 01-Jan-1971
- Date of most recent amendment:
- 03-Feb-2026
- Statutory Address 1:
- West Littleton Down, Tormarton, South Gloucestershire
Location
- Statutory Address:
- West Littleton Down, Tormarton, South Gloucestershire
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- South Gloucestershire (Unitary Authority)
- Parish:
- Tormarton
- National Grid Reference:
- ST7698576978
Summary
A Bronze Age round barrow situated on the wide sloping ridge at West Littleton Down, approximately 555m south-south-west of Turnpike Farm.
Reasons for Designation
The Bronze Age round barrow at West Littleton Down, 555m south-south-west of Turnpike Farm, is scheduled for the following principal reasons:
* Survival: as a well-preserved earthwork representing the diversity of burial practices, beliefs and social organisation amongst early prehistoric communities;
* Potential: for the stratified deposits which will retain information on the individuals buried within and, as part of a wider multi-period landscape.
History
The treatment, burial and commemoration of the dead have been a distinctive part of human life for millennia, and these activities have often left physical remains. The remains of the dead have been dealt with in remarkably varied ways in the past and it appears that, in the prehistoric period especially, only a small proportion of the population received a burial which has left traces detectable using current methods. They are distinctive burial mounds or monuments which can represent both individual burials as well as larger burial groups.
West Littleton Down is a gently sloping wide ridge overlooking the valley of a tributary of Broadmead Brook where several prehistoric barrows and other archaeological features have been identified. The barrow located 555m south-south-west of Turnpike Farm was first identified on early C20 aerial photography and more recently on LIDAR imagery. It has not been the subject to any archaeological investigation, but its form would suggest a Bronze Age date.
Several other earthworks have been identified around the site by aerial photography. These have been interpreted as either a complex Iron Age or Romano-British field system or representing a Second World War decoy airfield.
Details
PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS: a Bronze Age round barrow located on a gently sloping wide ridge at West Littleton Down, approximately 555m south-south-west of Turnpike Farm. The round barrow dates from the Bronze Age and is located on the east facing slope of the wide ridge which overlooks the valley of a tributary to the Broadmead Brook at West Littleton Down.
DESCRIPTION: the barrow is a circular, flat-topped mound measuring up to 25m in diameter and 1.5m high. Although there is no evidence for a surrounding ditch from which its construction material was derived, it is considered that this will survive as a buried feature associated with the mound.
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- SG 47
- Legacy System:
- RSM - OCN
Sources
Websites
South Gloucstershire Historic Environment Record - Field System Tolldown Road West Littleton Down Tormarton, accessed 2/01/2024 from https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=1976&resourceID=111
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.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 07-Jun-2026 at 18:09:55.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.