Round barrow 380m south-west of High Barn Farm

Overview

Heritage Category: Scheduled Monument

List Entry Number: 1012505

Date first listed: 22-Jan-1964

Date of most recent amendment: 05-Feb-1993

Location

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

National Grid Reference: SE 85936 53757

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.

Despite partial excavation and limited plough damage this barrow survives reasonably well. It will retain significant information on the manner and duration of its usage.

Details

The monument includes a Bronze Age round barrow, one of a group of barrows in this area of the Yorkshire Wolds. The barrow mound has a maximum height of 1m and a diameter of 20m. It is best preserved beneath the hedge which crosses it from north-east to south-west. In the field to the east of the hedge continued ploughing has reduced the height of the mound considerably. To the west of the hedge the barrow mound survives much better incorporated into the roadside verge. Although no longer visible at ground level, a ditch, from which material was excavated during the construction of the monument, surrounds the barrow mound. This has become in-filled over the years but survives as a buried feature four metres wide. The mound was opened by J R Mortimer in 1882; during that excavation three burials and examples of Beaker pottery were found.

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: 21114

Legacy System: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Mortimer, J R , Forty Years Researches in British and Saxon Burial Mounds of East Yorkshire, (1905), 317-319
'Yorkshire Archaeological Journal' in Yorkshire Archaeological Journal (1969), , Vol. 42, (1969), 266

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 Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.