Bowl barrow 240m east of Trinity Methodist Church, forming part of a round barrow cemetery on Sullington Warren

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.

Bowl barrows, the most numerous form of round barrow, occur either in isolation or grouped in cemeteries across most of lowland Britain. There are over 10,000 surviving bowl barrows recorded nationally (many more have already been destroyed). The bowl barrow 240m east of Trinity Methodist Church survives well, and part excavation has shown the cemetery of which it forms a part to contain archaeological remains and environmental evidence relating to the ways in which it was constructed and used.

Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow which forms part of a group of ten situated along two parallel NNW-SSE aligned Greensand ridges in the lee of the Sussex Downs. The cemetery is formed by two linear groups of barrows, one running along each ridge. The monument is south of the north westernmost barrow of the eastern group, which consists of six barrows. It has a roughly circular mound c.22m in diameter and c.1m high, surrounded by a ditch from which material used to construct the barrow was excavated. This has become infilled over the years, but survives as a buried feature c.2m wide. The cemetery was partly excavated in 1809 when cinerary urns and burnt human bones were found.

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:

27089

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Grinsell, L, Sussex Archaeological Society in Sussex in the Bronze Age, Vol. 72, (1941), 64

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.

Print the official list entry