Two bowl barrows on Yew Tree Heath

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

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1009923
Date first listed:: 16-Sep-1963

Bell Barrow with partially infilled ditch — Uploaded by James Brown This photo may not represent the current condition of the site
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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1009923
Date first listed:: 16-Sep-1963
Date of most recent amendment:: 04-Jun-1992

Location

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

County:: Hampshire
District:: New Forest (District Authority)
Parish:: Denny Lodge
National Park:: NEW FOREST
National Grid Reference:: SU 35889 06557

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 evidence for partial excavation, the two barrows on Yew Tree Heath survive well, the largest appearing as an obvious landmark within a well-used part of the New Forest, an area known to have been important in terms of lowland Bronze Age occupation. A considerable amount of archaeological evidence has survived in this area because of a lack of agricultural activity, the result of later climatic deterioration, development of heath and the establishment of a Royal Forest.

Details

This monument includes two bowl barrows situated on the brow of an east to west orientated ridge overlooking the valley of the River Beaulieu. The northern barrow mound measures 13m in diameter and stands up to 0.7m high. A slight hollow in the centre of the mound suggests previous robbing or early exploration of the site. A ditch, from which material was quarried during the construction of the barrow, surrounds the mound, although it is only visible as a slight earthwork 2m wide on the northern and south-eastern sides of the mound. The second barrow mound is situated 15m to the south-east, measures 25m in diameter and stands up to 2.5m high. A ditch survives as an earthwork 2.75m wide and 0.4m deep around the circumference of the mound.

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:: 20211
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Grinsell, L V, 'Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club' in Hampshire Barrows, , Vol. 14, (1938)
Other
Darvill, T, Monument Class Description - Bowl barrows, 1988,

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.