Bowl barrow in the Bishop of Winchester's Purlieu

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

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1012536
Date first listed:: 16-Sep-1963

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1012536
Date first listed:: 16-Sep-1963
Date of most recent amendment:: 10-Jun-1992

Location

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

County:: Hampshire
District:: New Forest (District Authority)
Parish:: Denny Lodge
National Park:: NEW FOREST
National Grid Reference:: SU 35285 04703

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 evidence for partial excavation, the bowl barrow in the Bishop of Winchester's Purlieu survives well adjacent to a heavily waterlogged area. This makes it likely that environmental evidence may survive relating, both to the monument and to the landscape in which it was constructed. Furthermore, the monument survives within the New Forest, an area known to have been important in terms of lowland Bronze Age occupation. A considerable amount of archaeological evidence has survived in this area because of a lack of agricultural activity, the result of later climatic deterioration, development of heath and the establishment of a Royal Forest.

Details

This monument includes a bowl barrow situated on a ridge within the Bishop of Winchester's Purlieu. The barrow mound measures 21m in diameter and stands up to 1.4m high. A hollow in the southern part of the mound suggests robbing or partial early excavation. Surrounding the mound is a ditch, from which material was quarried during the construction of the monument. This has become partly infilled over the years, but survives as an earthwork measuring 3m wide and up to 0.3m deep. Overall diameter of monument is 27m. This barrow lies within a relict field system.

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:: 20251
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Sumner, H, The Ancient Earthworks of the New Forest, (1917), 110&120
Other
Darvill, T C, Monument Class Descriptions - Bowl Barrows (1988), 1988,

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.