Bowl barrow on Huggate Wold, 580m north west of Horsedale Plantation

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 monument is one of a closely associated group of barrows on Huggate Wold. The location of the barrows alongside an ancient greenway, and close to the very extensive systems of dykes and hollow ways dating back to the Bronze Age, offers important insights into ancient land use and territorial divisions for social, ritual and agricultural purposes in this area of the Yorkshire Wolds. Despite part excavation by J R Mortimer in 1882, an earlier, unrecorded excavation, and the effects of ploughing over many years, the barrow still survives as a visible feature in the landscape, and will contain further burials and archaeological information relating to its construction.

Details

The monument includes a Bronze Age bowl barrow on Huggate Wold, situated approximately 1.5km due south of Fridaythorpe Village and 580m north west of Horsedale Plantation, in fields between Holm Dale to the north east, and Horse Dale to the south. The barrow is one of a group of six barrows surviving in close proximity in this area, which together form part of a much larger group of bowl barrows dispersed across Huggate Wold and Huggate Pasture. Although altered over the years by agricultural activity which has reduced the height of the mound and spread its surface, the barrow is still just visible as a low mound 0.2m high and 22m in diameter. It is surrounded by a ditch up to 3m wide which, although infilled by ploughing and no longer visible at ground level, will survive as a buried feature. The monument was originally part of a much larger cemetery of 20 barrows existing adjacent to an ancient trackway, which is itself related to the ancient greenway in the Wolds of East Yorkshire, now known as the Wolds Way. The barrow cemetery lies around 800m to the north of the linear bank system of Horse Dale, and Holm Dale to the east, and should therefore be viewed in the context of the wider ancient landscape, where very extensive systems of banks, dykes and hollow ways link large tracts of the countryside in this area of the Yorkshire Wolds. The barrow was partly excavated by J R Mortimer in March 1882, when it was observed to have been much reduced in height by the effects of ploughing even then, when it stood to a height of 0.75m. A central grave, orientated north-south and measuring 2.1m by 1.4m and 1m in depth, was found to have been partly emptied during an earlier excavation by James Silburn. At the northern, undisturbed end of the grave, however, the decayed leg bones of an adult interment were discovered, with the bones of a small infant at its feet, the upper portion having been removed by the earlier excavation. Fragments of human bones and the vertebra of a red deer were found in the disturbed end of the grave cut. An inverted food vessel was found 0.6m from the east side of the grave and 0.3m above the base of 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:

26545

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Mortimer, J R, Forty Years Researches in British and Saxon Burial Mounds of East Yorkshire, (1905)

End of official list entry

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