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Bowl barrow known as Povington Barrow, 300m west of Povington Farm

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

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1008023
Date first listed:: 14-Nov-1962

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1008023
Date first listed:: 14-Nov-1962
Date of most recent amendment:: 17-Mar-1994

Location

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

District:: Dorset (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Steeple with Tyneham
National Grid Reference:: SY 88047 82135

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.

Despite some damage over the years, the bowl barrow known as 'Povington Barrow' on East Holme Range contains archaeological remains and environmental evidence relating to the monument and the landscape in which it was constructed. This barrow is one of a number to survive on the heathland between the River Frome and the coast.

Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow situated on lowland heath close to the Dorset coast. The barrow mound is c.1m high and 19m across. Surrounding the mound is a ditch from which material was quarried during the construction of the monument. This has become infilled over the years and can no longer be seen at ground level, but survives as a buried feature c.3.5m wide. A Late Bronze Age bucket-shaped urn, containing a cremation and covered by a small cairn of locally derived flints, was found on the extreme edge of the barrow in 1937.

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:: 21931
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, , County of Dorset , (1970), 454
Frend, W H C, 'Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeology Soc' in Povington Barrow, , Vol. 71(1949), (1949), 68-69

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.