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Two bowl barrows at Bygrave, 650m east of Park Wood

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

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1009821
Date first listed:: 06-Sep-1992

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1009821
Date first listed:: 06-Sep-1992

Location

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

County:: Hertfordshire
District:: North Hertfordshire (District Authority)
Parish:: Bygrave
National Grid Reference:: TL 27680 36046

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 having been reduced in height by cultivation, the two bowl barrows at Bygrave survive comparatively well and will contain archaeological remains and environmental evidence relating to the monument and the landscape in which it was constructed. The close association of the barrows may be significant as few such pairings survive as earthworks in this area, most having been levelled by ploughing over many years.

Details

The monument includes two bowl barrows aligned NE to SW and situated on the Icknield Way at Bygrave. The southern-most barrow includes a hemispherical earth mound measuring 28m in diameter and c.0.9m in height. Approximately 30m to the north-east is another barrow mound which measures 21m in diameter and c.0.2m in height. Although no longer visible at ground level, ditches, from which material was quarried during the construction of the mounds, surround each barrow. 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:: 20643
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Other
Information from SMR (20643),

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.