Bowl barrow 800m north-east of Beverston Castle Farm

Overview

Heritage Category: Scheduled Monument

List Entry Number: 1008197

Date first listed: 19-Jan-1949

Date of most recent amendment: 24-Mar-1994

Location

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

National Grid Reference: ST 86967 94326

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.

The bowl barrow 800m north-east of Beverston Castle Farm survives comparatively well and will contain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to the monument and the landscape in which it was constructed. This one of a group of related monuments known to occur locally.

Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow situated on a gently sloping east-facing slope with views to the south and east. The barrow has a mound with dimensions of 25m from east-west, 35m from north-south and c.0.65m high. Surrounding the mound is a ditch from which material was quarried during the construction of the monument. This has become infilled over the years, but survives as a buried feature c.2m wide. The elongated shape of the mound is thought to have been caused by cultivation. Excluded from the scheduling are the dry-stone wall, fence posts and the water trough situated in the northern area of the monument, although the ground beneath these features is included.

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: 22866

Legacy System: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
O`Neil, H E, Grinsell, L V, 'Proc of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Arch Soc' in Gloucestershire Barrows, , Vol. 79, (1960)
Other
Oval shape in 1926,

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.