Oval barrow on Felton Hill 100m east of The Round House

Reasons for Designation

Oval barrows are funerary and ceremonial monuments of the Early to Middle Neolithic periods, with the majority of dated monuments belonging to the later part of the range. They were constructed as earthen or rubble mounds of roughly elliptical plan, usually delimited by quarry ditches. These ditches can vary from paired "banana-shaped" ditches flanking the mound to "U-shaped" or unbroken oval ditches nearly or wholly encircling it. Along with the long barrows, oval barrows represent the burial places of Britain's early farming communities and, as such, are amongst the oldest field monuments surviving visibly in the present landscape. Where investigated, oval barrows have produced two distinct types of burial rite: communal burials of groups of individuals, including adults and children, laid directly on the ground surface before the barrow was built; and burials of one or two adults interred in a grave pit centrally placed beneath the barrow mound. Certain sites provide evidence for several phases of funerary monument preceding the barrow and, consequently, it is probable that they may have acted as important ritual sites for local communities over a considerable period of time. Similarly, as the filling of the ditches around oval barrows often contains deliberately placed deposits of pottery, flintwork and bone, periodic ceremonial activity may have taken place at the barrow subsequent to its construction. Oval barrows are very rare nationally, with less than 50 recorded examples in England. As one of the few types of Neolithic structure to survive as earthworks, and due to their rarity, their considerable age and their longevity as a monument type, all oval barrows are considered to be nationally important.

The oval barrow 100m east of The Round House survives well and will contain information relating to the monument and the landscape in which it was constructed. This is one of only very few examples of an oval barrow occurring in the south-west of England and one of only two known examples within Avon.

Details

The monument includes an oval barrow orientated north-south and situated 100m east of The Round House on Felton Hill. The oval barrow has a mound c.1m high and c.16m by 20m across. Several large stones which protrude from the northern area of the mound may represent a collapsed burial chamber. The smaller stones lying on the mound are likely to have been deposited during the clearance of the common during the Second World War. The barrow mound is 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.

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:

22812

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Grinsell, L V, Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeology and Natural Hist Soc in Somerset Barrows (Volume 115) (1970), Vol. 115, (1970), 87

Other
Mention of 1946 deposition of stones, Mention of 1946 deposition of stones,
Tratman's identification of barrow, Tratman's identification of barrow,
Iles' suggestion of Post Mill use, Iles' suggestion of Post Mill use,

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