Bowl barrow 230m south east of the Club House on Petersfield Heath Common, part of the Petersfield Heath Group

Overview

Heritage Category: Scheduled Monument

List Entry Number: 1016451

Date first listed: 18-Jul-1932

Date of most recent amendment: 04-Feb-1999

Location

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

National Park: SOUTH DOWNS

National Grid Reference: SU 75722 23039

Summary

Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.

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 are the most numerous form of round barrow and date from the Late Neolithic period to the Late Bronze Age, with most examples belonging to the period 2400-1500BC. The bowl barrow on Petersfield Heath Common 230m south east of the Club House survives well despite some later disturbance caused by the modern use of the area as a public recreation ground. This and the other barrows in the group can be expected to retain important archaeological remains and environmental evidence relating to the cemetery and the environment in which it was constructed.

History

Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.

Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow of Late Neolithic to Bronze Age date situated on low lying ground at the northern end of Petersfield Heath Common. It forms part of a round barrow cemetery east of Heath Pond, known as the Petersfield Heath Group. Now comprising a total of 21 barrows, a first edition Ordnance Survey map dated to 1810 indicates that this round barrow cemetery was formerly more extensive, including further barrows situated to the north and east, now destroyed by modern housing. The barrow includes a flat-topped mound, roughly elliptical in shape, which has been slightly clipped to the north by the construction of a modern cricket ground. The mound stands approximately 2m high and measures 36m (east-west) by 32m (north-south) in diameter. A narrow berm on the south side is probably the result of later tree-fall damage. There is no visible trace of an outer ditch, although this will survive as a buried feature approximately 2m wide. The modern bench and associated concrete posts situated on the monument are excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath is included.

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: 32531

Legacy System: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Grinsell, L V, 'Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club' in Hampshire Barrows, , Vol. 14, (1939)

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 Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.