Four bowl barrows north of the A11/A14 junction, part of the Chippenham barrow cemetery

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.

Despite being reduced by cultivation, the four bowl barrows north of the A11/A14 junction will retain significant archaeological information. Funerary remains will survive within mounds and in buried features beneath them, illustrating the function of the monuments and the beliefs of the community which built them. The excavation of other barrows towards the eastern and western limits of the cemetery has demonstrated complex sequences of construction, and it is therefore considered likely that structural evidence, related to their development, will survive in each of these examples. Furthermore, the old land surface buried beneath the mounds will contain environmental evidence illustrating the appearance of the landscape in which the barrows were set. The associations between these barrows and the others which form both the cemetery and the wider alignment are highly significant, providing valuable insights into the development of ritual practices, the position of the prehistoric trackway across the chalk escarpment and the pattern of prehistoric settlement in the region.

Details

The monument includes the visible and buried remains of four Bronze Age bowl barrows located within an arable field to the north of the junction of the A11 and the A14 (Newmarket bypass). The barrows are arranged in a broadly east- west alignment across the chalk escarpment to the north of Newmarket, separated by intervals of between 70m and 100m and therefore protected by four separate constraint areas. All four barrows remain unexcavated, although ploughing has reduced the mounds to low earthworks in the otherwise level field. The westernmost barrow lies approximately half way between the compound of the water pumping station (next to the road junction) and a cluster of barns to the north west, and is straddled by the farm track which links the two. This survives as a low circular mound c.22m in diameter and 0.5m high, principally visible as a slight rise in the surface of the track. The second barrow lies some 70m to the ESE (c.70m due north of the pumping station compound), and measures 34m in diameter and c.0.4m high. The third barrow lies close to the south western field boundary and the verge of the A11 (some 150m to the north east of the pumping station), and measures 45m in diameter and 0.4m high. The fourth barrow lies approximately 300m north east of the pumping station (100m from its neighbour to the south west). This barrow was partly destroyed during the construction of the new A11 in 1973, although the north western half of the mound survives adjacent to the the field boundary, measuring 40m across and 0.5m high. The barrows, which were first recorded in 1923, form part of a larger cemetery which included at least ten similar barrows spread over a distance of c.1.5km to the south of Chippenham Park (the Chippenham barrow cemetery). To the south and east, two barrows survive in small copses to the south of the A11 at Hilly Plantation (SM 27179) and The Rookery (SM 27178). The furthest extant barrow (SM 27177) lies to the south of the Ely to Bury St Edmunds railway line, some 1.1km to the east of the road junction. This was originally part of a group of three barrows, two of which were excavated in 1940 but were subsequently destroyed by ploughing. The most westerly feature of the cemetery lay c.230m south west of the pumping station. This mound was excavated in 1973 prior to the construction of the Newmarket bypass, and found to be natural in origin although utilised as a barrow. Five inhumation graves and a cremation burial had been inserted into the mound. Grave goods found in association with the largest grave included a bronze cylinder, a jet or shale bead, and fragments from an Early Bronze Age `beaker' pot. The east-west alignment of the barrow cemetery, together with the positions of further isolated barrows to the south west of Newmarket and to the north east near Kennett and Barton Mills, broadly correlates with the course of the Roman road between Great Chesterford and Thetford (the Icknield Way). The barrows were clearly located to be visible from a prehistoric precursor to this route.

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:

27180

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Fox, C, Archaeology of the Cambridge Region, (1923)
Bray, S, Chippenham Park and Fen River Pipeline Archaeological Assessment, (1991)
Bray, S, Chippenham Park and Fen River Pipeline Archaeological Assessment, (1991)
Leaf, C S, PCAS in Further Excavations in Bronze Age Barrows at Chippenham, Cambs, Vol. 39, (1940), 30-34
Leaf, C S, PCAS in Further Excavations in Bronze Age Barrows at Chippenham, Cambs, Vol. 39, (1940), 30-35
Leaf, C S, PCAS in Further Excavations in Bronze Age Barrows at Chippenham, Cambs, Vol. 39, (1940), 30-34
Leaf, C S, PCAS in Further Excavations in Bronze Age Barrows at Chippenham, Cambs, Vol. 39, (1940), 30-34
Martin, E A, PCAS in Excavation Of Two Tumuli On Waterhall Farm, Chippenham, Cambs, (1977), 1-21
Martin, E A, PCAS in Excavation Of Two Tumuli On Waterhall Farm, Chippenham, Cambs, (1977), 1-21

Other
Title: Cambridge, Newmarket and Surrounding Area Source Date: 1986 Author: Publisher: Surveyor: Landranger 154 (1:50,000)
Title: Cambridge, Newmarket and Surrounding Area Source Date: 1986 Author: Publisher: Surveyor: Landranger 154 (1:50,000)
Title: Cambridge, Newmarket and Surrounding Area Source Date: 1986 Author: Publisher: Surveyor: Landranger 154 (1:50,000)
4424: The Rookery, (1985)
04424: The Rookery, (1985)
04424 The Rookery, (1985)
Generic No. - St Simon Stud barrows, 10325, (1985)
04425: Hilly Plantation, (1985)
04425: Hilly Plantation, (1985)
Generic number for Chippenham barrows, 07448: Chippenham Barrows, (1992)
Generic number for Chippenham barrows, 07448: Chippenham Barrows, (1992)
Generic No.- St Simon Stud barrows, 10325, (1985)
4425: Hilly Plantation, (1985)
Generic No.- St Simon Stud barrows, 10325, (1985)
Generic number for Chippenham barrows, 07448: Chippenham Barrows, (1992)

End of official list entry

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