Bowl barrow in Tunstall Forest, 900m west of Blacklands Farm

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 barrow 900m west of Blacklands Farm survives well and retains important archaeological information, despite having undergone some limited disturbance as a result of unauthorised excavation. Further evidence concerning the construction of the barrow and the manner and duration of its use, and also the local environment, at and prior to the time of its construction, will be contained in the mound and in the soils preserved beneath it.

Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow situated on low ground to the south of Barnes' Carr, within a forestry plantation. It is visible as an earthen mound covering a circular area 26m in diameter and standing to a height of c.1.1m. Fragments of Early Bronze Age pottery were found on the surface of the mound in 1929 and again subsequently, and the function of the barrow as a funerary monument was confirmed in 1967, when a Bronze Age urn containing a cremation was recovered by staff of Ipswich Museum during their investigation of an unauthorised shaft which had been found dug into 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:

21273

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Owles, E, Smedley, N, Proc Suffolk Inst Archaeol in A Collared Urn of the Early Middle Bronze Age from Chillesford, Vol. 31, (1968)

Other
XCVI, 93; card 104, Basil Brown archive,
Martin, E, CHF 001, (1987)
CHF 002,

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.