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A bowl barrow 500m WNW of Ring-in-the-Mire, forming part of a round barrow cemetery on Gittisham Hill

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

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1014250
Date first listed:: 15-Jan-1948

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1014250
Date first listed:: 15-Jan-1948
Date of most recent amendment:: 10-Apr-1996

Location

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

County:: Devon
District:: East Devon (District Authority)
Parish:: Gittisham
National Grid Reference:: SY 15037 96159

Reasons for Designation

Round barrow cemeteries date to the Bronze Age (c.2000-700 BC). They comprise closely-spaced groups of up to 30 round barrows - rubble or earthen mounds covering single or multiple burials. Most cemeteries developed over a considerable period of time, often many centuries, and in some cases acted as a focus for burials as late as the early medieval period. They exhibit considerable diversity of burial rite, plan and form, frequently including several different types of round barrow, occasionally associated with earlier long barrows. Where large scale investigation has been undertaken around them, contemporary or later "flat" burials between the barrow mounds have often been revealed. Round barrow cemeteries occur across most of lowland Britain, with a marked concentration in Wessex. In some cases, they are clustered around other important contemporary monuments such as henges. Often occupying prominent locations, they are a major historic element in the modern landscape, whilst their diversity and their longevity as a monument type provide important information on the variety of beliefs and social organisation amongst early prehistoric communities. They are particularly representative of their period and a substantial proportion of surviving or partly-surviving examples are considered worthy of protection.

The Gittisham Hill barrow cemetery comprises the western area of one of the most extensive and densest concentrations of barrows in Devon. Limited archaeological excavations of some of the barrows in this concentration have revealed that they show a remarkable diversity in size and form, and in the nature of their funerary contents. This barrow is one of 13 that form the Gittisham Hill barrow cemetery. It survives in good condition and will retain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to its construction and use.

Details

The Gittisham Hill barrow cemetery is situated in south east Devon, 8km south of Honiton, on the high ground of an extensive Greensand plateau where it forms the watershed of the south-flowing River Sid. The monument includes a single bowl barrow situated within an area of heathland on level ground on the east side Gittisham Hill. The barrow consists of a mound of evenly rounded profile, 23m in diameter and c.1.6m in height, surrounded by a ditch 3m wide and 0.3m deep, which is enhanced to the north west by uneven rising ground, and is indistinct in the south west. There is a shallow pit in the centre of the mound, 2m by 1m and 0.3m deep, and evidence of other slight ground disturbance in the top 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:: 27405
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Fox, A, 'Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society' in The Broad Down (Farway) Necropolis, , Vol. 4, (1952), 1-19
Grinsell, L V, 'Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society' in The Barrows of South and East Devon, , Vol. 41, (1983), 5-46
Hutchinson, , 'Report and Transactions of the Devonshire Association' in Report on Barrows near Sidmouth, , Vol. 12, (1880)
Simpson, S, Noble, S, 'Exeter Museums Archaeological Field Unit Report' in Archaeological Survey & Management Study of Areas of E Devon, , Vol. 93.38, (1993)

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.