Bowl barrow 800m west of Airman's Corner on Winterbourne Stoke Down

Reasons for Designation

The most complete and extensive survival of chalk downland archaeological remains in central southern England occurs on Salisbury Plain, particularly in those areas lying within the Salisbury Plain Training Area. These remains represent one of the few extant archaeological "landscapes" in Britain and are considered to be of special significance because they differ in character from those in other areas with comparable levels of preservation. Individual sites on Salisbury Plain are seen as being additionally important because the evidence of their direct association with each other survives so well.

Bowl barrows, the most numerous form of round barrows, 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), occuring across most of lowland Britain. Often occupying prominent locations they are a major historic element in the modern landscape. Their considerable variation of form and 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 examples are considered worthy of protection. Despite its reduced height, the bowl barrow on Winterbourne Stoke Down will contain archaeological remains and environmental evidence relating to the monument and the landscape in which it was contructed.

Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow located on a downland spur 800m west of Airman's Corner on Winterbourne Stoke Down. The barrow is visible as an oval mound 0.3m high, the extent of which is now difficult to determine on the ground. However, surrounding the mound is a ditch from which material was quarried during its construction. This has become infilled over the years and survives as a buried feature visible on aerial photographs from which its overall diameter is calculated to be 20m at its widest point.

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:

28930

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Hoare, R C, Ancient History of Wiltshire, (1812), 117

End of official list entry

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