Bowl barrow 350m south west of Normanton Gorse

Overview

Heritage Category: Scheduled Monument

List Entry Number: 1013812

Date first listed: 22-Mar-1995

Location

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

National Grid Reference: SU 10893 41290

Summary

Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.

Reasons for Designation

A small number of areas in southern England appear to have acted as foci for ceremonial and ritual activity during the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods. Two of the best known and earliest recognised areas are around Avebury and Stonehenge, now jointly designated as a World Heritage Site. The area of chalk downland which surrounds Stonehenge contains one of the densest and most varied groups of Neolithic and Bronze Age field monuments in Britain. Included within the area are Stonehenge itself, the Stonehenge cursus, the Durrington Walls henge, and a variety of burial monuments, many grouped into cemeteries. The area has been the subject of archaeological research since the 18th century when Stukeley recorded many of the monuments and partially excavated a number of the burial mounds. More recently, the collection of artefacts from the surfaces of ploughed fields has supplemented the evidence for ritual and burial by revealing the intensity of contemporary settlement and land-use. In view of the importance of the area, all ceremonial and sepulchral monuments of this period which retain significant archaeological remains are identified as nationally important. 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, normally 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 variety of burial practices. There are over 10,000 surviving bowl barrows recorded nationally and at least 320 in the Stonehenge area. This group of monuments will provide important information on the development of this area during the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age periods.

Despite being levelled by ploughing, the bowl barrow 350m south west of Normanton Gorse is known from partial excavation to contain archaeological remains and environmental evidence relating to the monument and the landscape in which it was constructed. Aerial photographs have shown that the ditch fills survive undisturbed, while deposits located on the Bronze Age ground surface will survive beneath the area disturbed by cultivation.

History

Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.

Details

The monument includes a levelled bowl barrow 350m south west of Normanton Gorse, situated on a south west facing slope with views across Wilsford Down. The barrow mound is now difficult to identify on the ground, but is known from aerial photographs and a mid-20th century report to be 11m in diameter. It is surrounded by a ditch from which material was quarried during its construction. This is now difficult to identify on the ground, having become infilled over the years, but is calculated to be 1m wide, giving an overall diameter of 13m. All fence posts are excluded from the scheduling, but the ground beneath them 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: 10479

Legacy System: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Grinsell, LV, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume V, (1957), 150
Hoare, R C, Ancient History of Wiltshire, (1812), 206

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.