Two bowl barrows: part of Leatherhead Down round barrow cemetery

Reasons for Designation

Round barrow cemeteries date to the Bronze Age (c.2000-700 BC). They comprise closely-spaced groups of up to 30 round barrows - rubble or earthen mounds covering single or multiple burials. Most cemeteries developed over a considerable period of time, often many centuries, and in some cases acted as a focus for burials as late as the early medieval period. They exhibit considerable diversity of burial rite, plan and form, frequently including several different types of round barrow, occasionally associated with earlier long barrows. Where large scale investigation has been undertaken around them, contemporary or later "flat" burials between the barrow mounds have often been revealed. Round barrow cemeteries occur across most of lowland Britain, with a marked concentration in Wessex. In some cases, they are clustered around other important contemporary monuments such as henges. Often occupying prominent locations, they are a major historic element in the modern landscape, whilst their diversity and their longevity as a monument type provide important information on the variety of beliefs and social organisation amongst early prehistoric communities. They are particularly representative of their period and a substantial proportion of surviving or partly-surviving examples are considered worthy of protection.

The monument on Leatherhead Down includes two of only three barrows surviving of an originally larger cemetery. The barrows survive comparatively well and contain archaeological remains and environmental evidence relating to the monument, the cemetery of which they formed a part and the landscape in which the cemetery was constructed.

Details

The monument includes two bowl barrows aligned north east to south west and situated on a broad east-west spur in an area of chalk downland. These barrows are two of the three surviving examples within a round barrow cemetery that once contained at least seven. The eastern barrow survives as a mound 20m north-south, 14m east-west and 0.7m high, surrounded by a ditch from which material was quarried during the construction of the monument. This is no longer visible at ground level having become infilled over the years but survives as a buried feature c.3m wide. The second barrow is 12m to the west and survives as mound 10m in diameter and 0.4m high. This too is surrounded by a ditch from which material was quarried and which now survives as a buried feature c.1.5m wide.

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:

20180

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Poulton, R, O'Connell, M G, Surrey Archaeological Collections in Recent Discoveries South Of Tyrell's Wood Golf Course Near Leatherhead, Vol. 75, (1984), 289-292

End of official list entry

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