Pudding Pie Hill: a bowl barrow 650m south-east of St Oswald's Church

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 barrow 650m south-east of St Oswald's Church is a relatively large and well-preserved example and partial excavation, which has demonstrated the existence of secondary inhumations, is not thought to have damaged any primary burials. The situation of the barrow means that the surrounding ditch and deeper-cut features beneath the mound retain waterlogged conditions favouring the preservation of organic artefacts and plant remains from which the Prehistoric environment of the barrow may be reconstructed.

Details

The monument includes the bowl barrow which is situated on the east bank of the Cod Beck river 650m south-east of St Oswald's Church and lies on the edge of an area of high ground adjacent to the floodplain of the river. The mound is 40m in diameter and the summit is about 3m above the high-ground to the east and rises to 6m above the floodplain. A slight irregular hollow at the top of the mound is thought to be the result of a partial excavation of the barrow by Lady Russell in 1855. Three male skeletons and some cremated bones were found along with a number of Anglian weapons; these burials represent a re-use of the mound for burials in the Dark Ages and it is thought that Prehistoric burials, interred when the mound was built, were not disturbed by the excavators. The barrow is surrounded by a ditch which cuts into the hillside to the south-east of the mound and is between 5m and 10m wide by up to 1.5m deep, while on the north-west side the ditch lies on the floodplain and is now 0.5m deep, having become silted-up over the years. The low-lying parts of the ditch are partially waterlogged. There is a slight 1m wide outer bank on the edge of the ditch on the floodplain. The ditch and outer bank have been incorporated into later field boundaries.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

20459

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Whellan, J J, History and Topography of the North Riding of Yorkshire, (1859), 706

Other
ECW, NAR Record, (1962)

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.

Print the official list entry