Bowl barrow and archery butt 230m south of Wold Newton church

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

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1007740
Date first listed:: 07-Jan-1980

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1007740
Date first listed:: 07-Jan-1980
Date of most recent amendment:: 17-Jan-1994

Location

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

District:: East Riding of Yorkshire (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Wold Newton
National Grid Reference:: TA 04588 72897

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. 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 provide important information on the diversity of beliefs and social organisations amongst early prehistoric communities. They are particularly representative of their period and a substantial proportion of surviving examples are considered worthy of protection.

This barrow survives reasonably well and seems little affected by its later use as an archery butt. It will retain significant information on its original form and the manner and duration of its use. It will also contribute to an understanding of the wider group of barrows in the area The re-use of the barrows as archery butts is unusual. Such butts were used throughout the medieval period for archery practice with the longbow, an important element of England's weaponry throughout the medieval period.

Details

The monument includes a Bronze Age bowl barrow in the centre of Wold Newton, one of a pair of barrows known locally as the Butts Hills, reflecting their later use in the medieval period as butts for archery practice. The barrow mound is 2m high and 22m in diameter. Although no longer visible at ground level, a ditch, from which material was excavated during the construction of the monument, surrounds the barrow mound. This has become in-filled over the years but survives as a buried feature 4m wide. The medieval ridge and furrow field strips respect both mounds, indicating that these are earlier than the field system and confirming them as barrows rather than specially constructed butt mounds.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features, considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:: 21243
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
The Victoria History of the County of Yorkshire: The East Riding, (1974), 297
Other
459, Humberside SMR,

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.