Bowl barrow on Dart Raffe Moor lying 725m south west of Broadridge Farm

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

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1015149
Date first listed:: 01-Nov-1966

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1015149
Date first listed:: 01-Nov-1966
Date of most recent amendment:: 18-Nov-1996

Location

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

County:: Devon
District:: North Devon (District Authority)
Parish:: Witheridge
National Grid Reference:: SS 79418 16448

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.

Despite the construction of a field boundary against the mound, the bowl barrow on Dart Raffe Moor lying 725m south west of Broadridge Farm survives well and contains archaeological and environmental information relating to the barrow and its surrounding landscape. This barrow forms part of a group of three lying in a prominent visual location.

Details

This monument includes a bowl barrow situated on Dart Raffe Moor in a prominent location overlooking the valley of the Little Dart River which forms part of a cluster of at least three barrows. The barrow survives as a circular flat topped mound 27.5m in diameter and 1.1m high. A slight hollow in the centre of the mound may be the result of part early excavation, robbing or recent animal poaching. The ditch, from which material was quarried to construct the mound, surrounds it and survives as a buried feature c.4m wide, except on the eastern side where a slight unsurveyable hollow is visible. The southern side of the mound has seen limited disturbance as a result of a field boundary and its ditch clipping the barrow. The water trough on the top of the barrow is excluded from the monument, although the ground beneath is included. Two other barrows lying to the north east are the subject of separate schedulings (SM 28609 and SM 28610).

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:: 28608
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Other
Devon County Sites and Monuments Register, SS71NE10, (1982)
MPP fieldwork by H. Gerrard, (1995)

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.