Summary
Four early-Bronze Age bowl barrows within three arable fields approximately 600m to the south-east of Small Hill Barton.
Reasons for Designation
Four bowl barrows 600m south-east of Small Hill Barton, which date to the early Bronze Age, are scheduled for the following principal reasons:
* Period: bowl barrows are particularly representative of their period, 2400-1500 BC, and this group is likely to be part of an early-Bronze Age barrow cemetery;
* Survival: despite being under the plough until recent years, the four barrows survive well as substantial earthwork monuments with evidence of below-ground archaeology;
* Potential: the barrows have considerable potential to retain deposits pertaining to their construction and any interior structures, evidence of funerary traditions of the Bronze Age period, and artefacts and ecofacts sealed within the mounds. The barrows are also part of a landscape unencumbered by modern development and therefore offer a high level of potential to inform our understanding of continuity and change;
* Group value: with other single and grouped early-Bronze Age bowl barrows in the surrounding landscape, many of which are scheduled monuments.
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. Round barrows are distinctive burial mounds or monuments which can represent both individual burials as well as larger burial groups.
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 2000-1500 BC. Sometimes described as tumuli on early maps, they were constructed as earthen or rubble inverted pudding bowl-shaped mounds, sometimes ditched, and occasionally with an outer bank, covering single or multiple burials. Bowl barrows range greatly in size from just 5m in diameter to as much as 40m, with the mounds ranging from slight rises to as much as 4m in height. Often superficially similar, they exhibit regional variations in form and a diversity of burial practice. They occur either in isolation or grouped as cemeteries and often acted as a focus for burials in later periods. Sometimes the visible mound signals the end of a long period of activity on the site, and its construction may not have been part of the original design or purpose. There are over 10,000 surviving bowl barrows recorded nationally (many more have already been destroyed), occurring across most of lowland Britain. 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 provides important information on the diversity of beliefs and social organisations amongst early prehistoric communities. They are one of the main sources of information about life in this period.
On the 1883 Ordnance Survey map, five barrows are depicted across three fields to the east of the present A39, which in turn lies to the east of Small Hill Barton. On the map, the easternmost of these is marked as a triangulation point, whilst the northernmost appears to be truncated by a minor road running east to Trengune.
In 1960 an emergency excavation of the northernmost barrow took place due to the widening of the A39. Named the ‘Otterham Barrow’, the excavation report by Dudley (see Sources) described the barrow as a ‘text-book-like plan of a bell barrow without variation’, noting that it must have been one of the finest in the county. Whilst this barrow no longer survives, the report details its form and construction, and similar could be expected of four other barrows to its south and east which survive as earthworks. The excavated barrow dated from the early Bronze Age and was over 100 feet (30.5m) in diameter with a central single cremation pit. The few finds included flint artefacts, a small ‘cupped-pebble’ implement and a possible greenstone axe. The report concluded that the excavation results provided evidence of Cornwall having a burial culture parallel to that of Wessex, rather than being a political outpost to it.
The four surviving barrows were re-surveyed by the Ordnance Survey in 1976. They are included on the county Historic Environment Record and were also recorded as part of the Cornwall National Mapping Programme in 1994. They are all visible on aerial photographs and LIDAR imagery.
Details
SUMMARY OF ASSET: four early-Bronze Age bowl barrows within three arable fields approximately 600m to the south-east of Small Hill Barton.
PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS: situated on an east-facing slope about 160m above sea level and overlooking the sources of several tributaries to the River Ottery, are four early-Bronze Age bowl barrows scattered across three arable fields. The barrows vary in size from 21.5m to 38m in diameter, and 0.4m to 1.6m in height.
DESCRIPTION : the four bowl barrows to the south-east of Small Hill Barton probably date to the early Bronze Age and may have been part of a larger barrow cemetery. The barrows are located in three arable fields covering an area of about 10 hectares, bounded to the north by a minor road and to the west by the A39.
The four bowl barrows, which survive as above-ground earthworks, are described here from north to south.
The northernmost barrow at SX1775994088 lies about 34m from the northern edge of the field. It is approximately 34.5m in diameter and 1.3m high. There is no visible ditch and the earthwork has been spread by ploughing.
The barrow at SX1810293980, lies approximately 361m to the south-east of the northern barrow, in an adjacent field. The north side of the barrow is well-defined and there is evidence of a possible ditch. The same could be said of the east side. The west and south sides of the barrow have shallower, longer slopes, suggesting plough spread. The barrow measures about 38m in diameter, and about 1.6m high.
The barrow at SX1777493957 lies within the same field as the northernmost barrow, and about 130m to its south. It is approximately 36.7m in diameter and 1m high and has a slight central depression. There is no visible ditch and the earthwork has been spread by ploughing.
The southernmost barrow at SX1761593685 lies two fields away about 317m to the south-west of the barrow at SX1777493957. It is approximately 21.5m in diameter and 0.4m high. A ditch is discernible as a cropmark on aerial photographs.
EXTENT OF SCHEDULING: each of the barrows is mapped individually, with each having a 6m wide buffer or margin for the ditches and further protection.
