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Bowl barrow 300m north of Postdown Farm: part of the Seven Barrows cemetery

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

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1012435
Date first listed:: 26-Jun-1991

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1012435
Date first listed:: 26-Jun-1991

Location

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

District:: West Berkshire (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Lambourn
National Grid Reference:: SU 32929 82556

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. Their ubiquity and their tendency to occupy prominent locations makes them 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 Postdown Farm barrow is important as it survives comparatively well under cultivation and has potential for the recovery of archaeological remains. The significance of the barrow is considerably enhanced by its inclusion within the `Seven Barrows' cemetery. Barrow cemeteries give an indication of the intensity with which areas were settled during prehistory and provide evidence for the range of beliefs and nature of social organisation during the Bronze Age. The Seven Barrows cemetery is a fine example of its class containing a wide range of barrow types.

Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow set on the floor of a dry valley in an area of undulating chalk downland. The barrow mound survives as an earthwork 1m high and 25m in diameter. Although no longer visible at ground level a ditch, from which material was quarried during construction of the monument, surrounds the mound. This has filled in over the years and now survives as a buried feature c.3m wide. The monument forms part of the Seven Barrows cemetery, the core of which lies to the north and west.

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:: 12280
Legacy System:: RSM

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.