Auctioneer's Mound; a bowl barrow 70m NE of St John the Baptist's Church

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.

Auctioneer's Mound is well preserved and will retain important evidence for the character and duration of its use and of the environment in which it was created. The monument has been reused over an extended period of time and has a recognised place in the activities of the modern community.

Details

The monument has been identified as a bowl barrow and is situated 70m north east of St John the Baptist's Church in the village of Ashley. The mound stands to a height of 1.8m and is 20m in diameter; it is 9m in diameter across its flattened top. 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, approximately 3m wide. The monument is known locally as the 'Auctioneer's Mound' and is the setting for a church service once a year on Plough Sunday. The fence posts on the south eastern edge of the monument are excluded from the scheduling, but the ground beneath these features 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.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

21530

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Gunstone, A J H, The North Staffordshire Journal of Field Studies in An Archaeological Gazetter of Staffordshire: The Barrows, Vol. 5, (1965), 32

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