Two bowl barrows 100m north east of Bowldown Wood

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

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1008790
Date first listed:: 24-Jan-1949

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1008790
Date first listed:: 24-Jan-1949
Date of most recent amendment:: 27-Jun-1994

Location

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

County:: Gloucestershire
District:: Cotswold (District Authority)
Parish:: Westonbirt with Lasborough
National Grid Reference:: ST 84587 92059

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 partial excavation of one of the mounds, the two bowl barrows 100m north east of Bowldown Wood survive comparatively well and will contain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to the monument and the landscape in which they were constructed.

Details

The monument includes two bowl barrows arranged on an east-west axis and situated on sloping ground 100m north east of Bowldown Wood in an area of the Cotswold Hills. The western barrow, which has a mound composed of small stones, is 25m across and c.0.6m high. The mound is known to have been partially disturbed by excavation between 1939-1940, but the burial deposits of the monument were not disturbed. The eastern barrow, which also has a mound composed of small stones, has a maximum diameter of 22m and a maximum height of 0.25m. Both barrow mounds are surrounded by ditches from which material was quarried during their construction. These have become infilled over the years, but survive as buried features c.2m 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:: 22891
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Other
Details of barrow dimensions,
Mention of watching brief (1939-40),

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.