Bowl barrow 150m east of the wireless station on Morgan's Hill

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 Early Bronze Age periods. Two of the best known and earliest recognised, with references in the 17th century, are around Avebury and Stonehenge, now jointly designated as a World Heritage Site. In the Avebury area, the henge monument itself, the West Kennet Avenue, the Sanctuary, West Kennet long barrow, Windmill Hill causewayed enclosure and the enigmatic Silbury Hill are well-known. Whilst the other Neolithic long barrows, the many Bronze Age round barrows and other associated sites are less well-known, together they define one of the richest and most varied areas of Neolithic and Bronze Age ceremonial monuments in the country. 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 diversity of burial practices. There are over 10,000 surviving bowl barrows recorded nationally and around 320 in the Avebury area. This group of monuments will provide important information on the development of this area during the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age periods. All surviving examples are considered worthy of protection.

Despite having been partly levelled by cultivation, the bowl barrow 150m east of the wireless station on Morgan's Hill survives as a visible earthwork. It is known from part excavation to contain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to its construction and the landscape in which it was built.

Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow situated 150m east of the wireless station on Morgan's Hill. It is 30m east of a NNW-SSE aligned cross ridge dyke. The barrow mound has been partly levelled by cultivation but survives as a low spread of chalk, visible at ground level. This measures c.17m in diameter and stands up to 0.3m high. Surrounding the original extent of the mound is a 2m wide quarry ditch from which material was obtained during its construction. This has become infilled over the years but survives buried below the modern ground level. The barrow was partly excavated in the 1850s when the cremated remains of a child were found in a secondary burial.

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:

28107

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Other
SU06NW 644, C.A.O., Bowl barrow, (1975)
SU06NW 659, C.A.O., Linear ditch, (1975)

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.