Six bowl barrows forming the majority of a round barrow cemetery in Larkhill Camp south of The Packway

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

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1009068
Date first listed:: 17-Mar-1965

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1009068
Date first listed:: 17-Mar-1965
Date of most recent amendment:: 27-Mar-1995

Location

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

District:: Wiltshire (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Durrington
National Grid Reference:: SU 13121 44015

Reasons for Designation

A small number of areas in southern England appear to have acted as foci for ceremonial and ritual activity during the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods. Two of the best known and earliest recognised areas are around Avebury and Stonehenge, now jointly designated as a World Heritage Site. The area of chalk downland which surrounds Stonehenge contains one of the densest and most varied groups of Neolithic and Bronze Age field monuments in Britain. Included within the area are Stonehenge itself, the Stonehenge cursus, the Durrington Walls henge, and a variety of burial monuments, many grouped into cemeteries. The area has been the subject of archaeological research since the 18th century when Stukeley recorded many of the monuments and partially excavated a number of the burial mounds. More recently, the collection of artefacts from the surfaces of ploughed fields has supplemented the evidence for ritual and burial by revealing the intensity of contemporary settlement and land-use. In view of the importance of the area, all ceremonial and sepulchral monuments of this period which retain significant archaeological remains are identified as nationally important. Round barrow cemeteries date to the Bronze Age (2000-700 BC). They comprise closely spaced groups of up to 30 round barrows - rubble or earthen mounds covering single or multiple burials. Most cemeteries developed over a considerable period of time, often many centuries, and in some cases acted as a focus for burials as late as the early medieval period. They exhibit considerable diversity of burial rite, plan and form, frequently including several different types of round barrow and occasionally associated with earlier long barrows. Where investigation beyond the round barrows has occurred, contemporary or later 'flat' burials between the barrow mounds have often been revealed. Round barrow cemeteries occur across most of lowland England with a marked concentration in Wessex. In some cases they are clustered around other important contemporary monuments, as is the case both here and at Avebury. Often occupying prominent positions, they are a major historic element in the modern landscape, while their diversity and their longevity as a monument type provide important information on the variety of beliefs and social organisation amongst early prehistoric communities.

Despite disturbance caused by the former use of the area as a military camp, partial excavation has shown that all six bowl barrows forming most of the round barrow cemetery in Larkhill Camp contain archaeological remains and environmental evidence relating to the monument and the landscape in which it was constructed. The cemetery includes an unusual twin or confluent bowl barrow.

Details

The monument includes six of the seven bowl barrows which make up a round barrow cemetery situated next to a childrens' playground within Larkhill Camp, south of The Packway and east of Lightfoot Road. Six barrows now survive; the seventh has been built over by houses, and is not included. The southernmost barrow in this cemetery is c.16m in diameter and 1m high, with traces of a ditch c.2m wide giving an overall diameter of c.20m. The southern half of the barrow is difficult to identify having been disturbed by earthmoving activity. The barrow 22m NW of this is 18m in diameter and 1.9m high, with a shallow ditch 2m wide, giving an overall diameter of 22m. A third barrow 15m to the NE is visible as a slight earthwork c.0.25m high, and from its representation on the Ordnance Survey six inch map of 1887, has an overall diameter of c.20m. The remaining three bowl barrows, including a twin or confluent barrow, are difficult to identify on the ground, probably as a result of the former use of the area as a military camp. All three survive as levelled mounds and are surrounded by ditches from which material was quarried during their construction. Two of the three are represented on the Ordnance Survey six inch map of 1887, from which their overall diameters are calculated to be c.15m, and the third is mapped by a 19th century fieldworker and has an overall diameter of c.40m. Partial excavation of all six barrows in the 19th century revealed burials and a variety of associated finds. The tarmac surface of the playground which crosses part of one of the barrows is excluded from the scheduling, but the ground beneath it 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:: 10280
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Grinsell, LV, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume V, (1957), 171
Grinsell, LV, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume V, (1957), 171
Grinsell, LV, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume V, (1957), 171
Grinsell, LV, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume V, (1957), 171
Grinsell, LV, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume V, (1957), 171
Grinsell, LV, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume V, (1957), 171
Hoare, R C, Ancient History of Wiltshire, (1812), 168
Hoare, R C, Ancient History of Wiltshire, (1812), 168
Hoare, R C, Ancient History of Wiltshire, (1812), 168
Hoare, R C, Ancient History of Wiltshire, (1812), 169
Hoare, R C, Ancient History of Wiltshire, (1812), 169
Hoare, R C, Ancient History of Wiltshire, (1812), 169

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.