Stow Barrow : a bowl barrow 700m southwest of Haydon Grange Farm

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

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1010522
Date first listed:: 19-Dec-1929

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1010522
Date first listed:: 19-Dec-1929
Date of most recent amendment:: 09-Jan-1992

Location

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

District:: Somerset (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Priddy
National Grid Reference:: ST 52065 53537

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 bowl barrow known as `Stow Barrow' 700m southwest of Haydon Grange Farm survives comparatively well despite areas of localised disturbance caused by partial excavation and quarrying. It is likely that the primary burial, the ditch fills and much of the barrow mound remain intact. The bowl barrow therefore has potential for the recovery of archaeological and environmental evidence relating both to the monument and the landscape in which it was constructed. The barrow is exceptionally large for the area. Numerous other burial monuments of the same date also survive in the area. Such evidence gives an indication of the intensity of occupation and the nature of social organisation present in the area during the Bronze Age period.

Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow set on level ground 700m southwest of Haydon Grange Farm. It comprises a mound 35m in diameter and c.5m high at its highest point. Although no longer visible at ground level a ditch, from which material was quarried during the construction of the monument, surrounds the mound. This has become infilled over the years but survives as a buried feature c.3m wide. An excavation trench, probably the result of quarrying has cut into the edge of the mound on the south side. A central depression and a large excavation trench on the northwest may have been caused by partial excavation or by quarrying.

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:: 13826
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Gough, J W, Mendip Mining Laws and Forest Bounds, (1931)
Grinsell, L, 'Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeology and Natural Hist Soc' in Somerset Barrows Part II, , Vol. Vol 115, (1971), 123
Hobhouse, E, 'Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological & Nat Hist Society' in Somerset Forest Bounds, , Vol. 37, (1892), 82
Tratman, E K, 'Proc Univ Bristol Spel Soc' in Fieldwork, , Vol. 5 (i), (1938), 82

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.