Smerrill Moor bowl barrow

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

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1008010
Date first listed:: 14-Aug-1970

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1008010
Date first listed:: 14-Aug-1970
Date of most recent amendment:: 08-Oct-1993

Location

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

County:: Derbyshire
District:: Derbyshire Dales (District Authority)
Parish:: Middleton and Smerrill
National Park:: PEAK DISTRICT
National Grid Reference:: SK 18440 60803

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.

Smerrill Moor bowl barrow has been left relatively undisturbed and further significant archaeological remains will survive in the unexcavated areas of the monument and on the old land surface underneath.

Details

Smerrill Moor bowl barrow is situated overlooking Long Dale in the central uplands of the limestone plateau of Derbyshire. The monument includes a sub-circular mound measuring 12m by 10.5m and standing c.0.5m high. A prominent limestone kerb is visible on all sides. A partial excavation was carried out by Thomas Bateman in 1857 when a rock-cut grave was found containing a crouched skeleton on a bed of clay. This was accompanied by a bone tool, several flint implements and a decorated pottery drinking vessel. The vessel dates the barrow to the Beaker period or Early Bronze Age.

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:: 23247
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Barnatt, J, The Peak District Barrow Survey (1989), (1989)
Barnatt, J, The Peak District Barrow Survey (1989), (1989)
Bateman, T, Ten Years Diggings in Celtic and Saxon Grave-Hills, (1861), 102-3
Clarke, D L, The Beaker Pottery of Great Britain and Ireland, (1970)
Marsden, B M, The Burial Mounds of Derbyshire , (1977), 75-6

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.