Home
Listing
Search the List

Enrich the List

Apply for Listing

What is Listing?

Listing Guidance
Listing

Find out about listed buildings and other protected sites, and search the National Heritage List for England (NHLE).

Find out about listing

The Old Blacksmith’s Shop The Old Blacksmith's Shop, Wiltshire © Historic England DP276780
Advice
Advice Finder

Heritage at Risk

Your Home

Technical Guidance

Planning

Caring for Heritage

Constructive Conservation

Heritage Protection Guide

Coronavirus Support & Advice
Advice

See our extensive range of expert advice to help you care for and protect historic places.

Get our advice

Tubwell Row Darlington, since 2001 improvements to Darlington Town Centre have sought to celebrate its architecture and create a pedestrian heart with an inclusive shopping and civic area © Historic England
Research
Our Research Strategy and Agenda

Research Methods

Current Research

Research Results

Support & Collaboration

Inclusive Heritage

Latest Research

Heritage Counts
Research

Discover and use our high-quality applied research to support the protection and management of the historic environment.

Discover our research

Testing vertical aerial photography methods at British Camp on the Malvern Hills. Read about our latest aerial investigation methods © Historic England Archive. (S3282_V_0651)
Images & Books
Find Photos

Search All Publications

Buy Books

The Historic England Archive
Images & Books

Historic England holds an extensive range of publications and historic collections in its public archive covering the historic environment.

Browse our collections

A portrait of John Laing outside Bournemouth train station, during a staff outing of Laing's London office. Photographed 30 May 1953 © Historic England Archive. John Laing Photographic Collection. JLP01/08/008844
Services & Skills
Education

Grants

Our Planning Services

Training & Skills

Archive Services

Heritage Action Zones
Services & Skills

Find out about services offered by Historic England for funding, planning, education and research, as well as training and skill development.

Learn about our services

New Heritage Partnership Agreement Signed at King's Cross Station © Historic England
Get Involved
High Street Culture

Everyday Heritage

Support Us

Volunteer in Heritage

Protect Your Heritage

Visit Your Heritage

Help Write History
Get Involved

Explore the many ways you can help to support the incredibly rich and varied heritage.

Get involved in heritage

Brixton Windmill - Friends of Brixton Windmill. Shortlisted for ‘Best Rescue of an Industrial Building or Site’ Angel Award in 2012 © Historic England
What's New
News

In Your Area

Historic England Blog

Latest Research

Heritage Online Debate

Statements

Stay up to Date

Coronavirus Support & Advice
What's New

Read about our current news, projects and campaigns nationally and in your area.

Catch up with what's new

Sandra Kazlauskaite interviewing a Youth Club group at Grantham Community Centre. © Emm Nunn
Sign in
Manage my account

Sign out

Two bowl barrows 600m south east of Ditchling Cross: part of Plumpton Plain round barrow cemetery

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

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1008152
Date first listed:: 07-Jul-1994

Enrich the List

Be the first to add a photo and help showcase this place to others.

Upload a photo

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.

What is the National Heritage List for England?

The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

The list includes:

Find out more about listing

Historic England Archive

Search over 1 million photographs and drawings from the 1850s to the present day using our images archive.

Find Photos

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1008152
Date first listed:: 07-Jul-1994

Location

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

County:: East Sussex
District:: Lewes (District Authority)
Parish:: East Chiltington
National Park:: SOUTH DOWNS
National Grid Reference:: TQ 36606 12573

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.

Bowl barrows are the most numerous form of round barrow and date from the Late Neolithic period to the Late Bronze Age. Most examples were constructed in the period 2400-1500 BC. They occur across most of lowland Britain and, although superficially similar in appearance, exhibit regional variations of form and a diversity of burial practices. The two bowl barrows 600m south east of Ditchling Cross survive comparatively well and will contain archaeological remains and environmental evidence relating to the monument and the landscape in which it was constructed.

Details

The monument includes two bowl barrows, part of a group of 15 round barrows forming a linear round barrow cemetery running from west to east along a ridge of the Sussex Downs. The most westerly of the two barrows has a circular mound 10m in diameter, surrounded by a ditch from which material used to construct the mound was excavated. This survives as a slight depression between 2.5m and 3m wide and 0.1m deep. Six metres to the east is a second bowl barrow with a mound surviving as a slight earthwork 6m in diameter and 0.1m high. This smaller mound would also have been surrounded by a ditch which, having become infilled over the years, survives as a buried feature c.1m 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:: 24377
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Grinsell, L V, 'Sussex Archaeological Collections' in Sussex Barrows, , Vol. 75, (1934), 258

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 Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.