Three bowl barrows 850m east of Park Wood Farm

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 three bowl barrows 850m east of Park Wood Farm survive comparatively well and will contain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to the monument and the landscape in which they were constructed. These barrows are unusual in that they do not appear to have been disturbed by partial excavation.

Details

The monument includes three bowl barrows aligned from south west to north east, situated on gently sloping ground overlooking dry valleys to the south and east, in an area of the Cotswold Hills. The north eastern barrow has a mound 12m across and c.0.25m high. The barrow mound is now partially overlain by a metalled surface. The central barrow is 30m across and c.1.8m high, while the south western barrow is 12m across and c.0.2m high. All three mounds are surrounded by ditches from which material was quarried during their construction. These have become infilled over the years, but are known from aerial photographs to survive as buried features, c.2m wide in the case of the two smaller barrows, and c.6m wide in the case of the larger central mound. The metalled surface overlying the north eastern barrow is excluded from the scheduling although the underlying ground 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:

22898

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Fowler, P J, Archaeology and the Landscape, (1972), 147

Other
Dimensions of ditch from AP evidence,
Report of name of field by Vlasto,
Report of name of the field by Vlasto,

End of official list entry

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