Bowl barrow north west of Telegraph House

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 some disturbance to the monument by cultivation, the bowl barrow north-west of Telegraph House has potential for the recovery of archaeological remains and environmental evidence relating to the landscape in which the monument was constructed.

Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow, surviving as a low earthwork, situated on a chalk ridge running south from Beacon Hill. The barrow mound is 21m in diameter and stands to a height of 0.4m. Surrounding this is a ditch from which material was quarried during the construction of the monument. This is no longer visible as an earthwork but survives as a buried feature c.3m wide and can be traced as a relatively stone free ring of darker soil around 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:

20009

Legacy System:

RSM

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