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. 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, normally 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 variety of burial practices. There are over
10,000 surviving bowl barrows recorded nationally and at least 320 in the
Stonehenge area. This group of monuments will provide important information
on the development of this area during the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age
periods.
Despite being disturbed, the barrow 160m south of the west end of the Cursus
is known from partial excavation to contain archaeological remains and
environmental evidence relating to the monument and the landscape in which it
was constructed.
Details
The monument includes a bowl barrow located 160m south of the west end of the
Cursus, immediately south of the A344 and occupying an area of flat ground on
Winterbourne Stoke Down. The barrow is now difficult to define on the ground,
being in an area used in the past for storing roadmaking material. However,
the barrow mound is represented on the Ordnance Survey 6" map of 1884 from
which the diameter is calculated to be 20m. The mound is surrounded by a ditch
from which material was quarried during its construction. This has become
infilled over the years but survives as a buried feature c.2m wide, giving the
barrow an overall diameter of c.24m. Partial excavation in the early 19th
century revealed a primary cremation together with a handled bronze awl in an
urn.
The metalled road which crosses the monument on its northern side is excluded
from the scheduling but the ground beneath 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.
