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 dispersed group of barrows on Huggate Pasture and
Warter Wold, which are related to other barrows on Huggate Wold. The location
of the barrows close to an ancient greenway, and 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 excavations 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 340m south east of
Watermanhole Reservoir, situated around 1.5km south west of Huggate Wold and
1km north of Huggate Pasture. The monument is one of a broadly related group
of barrows surviving in this area, which together form part of a much larger
group of bowl barrows dispersed across Huggate and Warter Wolds and Huggate
Pasture.
Although altered over the years by agricultural activity which has
considerably reduced the height of the mound and spread its surface area, the
barrow is still visible as a low rise in the land, up to 0.2m high and 20m in
diameter. It is surrounded by a ditch up to 3m wide, which, although infilled
by ploughing and now no longer visible at ground level, will survive as a
buried feature.
The monument was originally part of a larger cemetery of 19 bowl barrows
identified by J R Mortimer in the 1880s, running approximately north-south
from the vicinity of Huggate Pasture down to Warter Wold. This group lies to
the west of another group of 20 similar barrows identified by Mortimer, lying
dispersed across Huggate Wold. These barrows lie close to the ancient trackway
running on the western side of the Wolds, part of which survives today and is
known as the Wolds Way.
The monument lies within a complex of linear bank and ditch systems, and
should be viewed in the context of the wider ancient landscape, where very
extensive systems of these banks, dykes and hollow ways link large tracts of
the countryside in this region of the Yorkshire Wolds.
According to J R Mortimer, the barrow was subject to unrecorded excavations,
both by James Silburn in 1851 and then by Mr Thomas of Boston, Lincolnshire in
1881. No finds were reported and Mortimer decided against further excavation
during his investigations of the barrows in this area.
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.
