Summary
Four bowl barrows between 115m and 415m south of Highborough Farm.
Reasons for Designation
Bowl barrows, the most numerous form of round barrow, are funerary monuments dating from the Late Neolithic period to the Late Bronze Age, with most examples belonging to the period 2400-1500 BC. They were constructed as earthen or rubble mounds, sometimes ditched, which covered single or multiple burials. They occur either in isolation or grouped as cemeteries and often acted as a focus for burials in later periods. Often superficially similar, although differing widely in size, they exhibit regional variations in form and a diversity of burial practices. Often occupying prominent locations, they are a major historic element in the modern landscape and their considerable variation of form and longevity as a monument type provide important information on the diversity of beliefs and social organisations amongst early prehistoric communities. They are particularly representative of their period. Despite reductions in the heights of the mounds through cultivation and incorporation into a garden, the four bowl barrows between 115m and 415m south of Highborough Farm survive comparatively well and will contain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to their construction, relative chronologies, territorial significance, social organisation, ritual and funerary practices and overall landscape context.
History
See Details.
Details
This record was the subject of a minor enhancement on 3 December 2015. This 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.
This monument, which falls into four areas, includes four bowl barrows situated on a wide ridge overlooking the upper Lamberal Water. The barrows survive as circular mounds surrounded by buried quarry ditches from which the construction material was derived. They are arranged as two discrete pairs of barrows, one pair to the north and one pair to the south. The southernmost mound measures approximately 30m in diameter and up to 0.9m high and its pair lies to the north east and is up to 26m in diameter and 1.7m high and the mound has a flat top and a small central depression. The northernmost mound measures approximately 35m in diameter and up to 1m high and its pair to the south east is up to 22m in diameter and is visible as a slight rise in the ground, both of these barrows lie within a garden.
Further archaeological remains survive within the vicinity of the monument, but these are not included within the scheduling because they have not been formally assessed.
