Listing
Search the List

What is Listing?

Listing Guidance

Apply for Listing

Missing Pieces Project

Blue Plaque Scheme
Listing

Find out about listed buildings and other protected sites, and search the National Heritage List for England (NHLE).

Find out about listing

Terracotta tiles on the roof of Saintoft Lodge, Newton-on-Rawcliffe, Ryedale, North Yorkshire. Grade II listed © Historic England Archive DP371715
Advice
Climate Change

Heritage at Risk

Your Home

Technical Guidance

Planning

Caring for Heritage

Constructive Conservation
Advice

See our extensive range of expert advice to help you care for and protect historic places.

Get our advice

A contractor cutting bricks for the wall of the partially-restored wild and natural walled garden at Warley Place, Brentwood. Explore our technical advice section © Historic England Archive DP313199
Research
Our Research Strategy and Agenda

Research Governance

Latest Research

Research Methods

Current Research

Research Results

Support & Collaboration

Inclusive Heritage

Heritage Counts
Research

Discover and use our high-quality applied research to support the protection and management of the historic environment.

Discover our research

Archaeologist Dr David Neal discussing his illustration of the mosaic being excavated at Rutland Roman Villa with members of the University of Leicester Archaeological Services team View image DP264265 © Historic England
Images & Books
Find Photos

Search All Publications

Buy Books

The Historic England Archive
Images & Books

Historic England holds an extensive range of publications and historic collections in its public archive covering the historic environment.

Browse our collections

Children play with a doll and a pram on the cobbled Church Path in Queen Camel, Somerset, in April 1953. At the far end of the path is the tower of the Church of St Barnabas, which dates to the 14th century. Photographer: John Gay Image reference: AA091596 © Historic England Archive
Services & Skills
Education

Grants

Our Planning Services

Training & Skills

Archive Services

Heritage Action Zones

Levelling Up Places Service
Services & Skills

Find out about services offered by Historic England for funding, planning, education and research, as well as training and skill development.

Learn about our services

Heritage Apprentices in a training session on the Researching The Historic Environment module and training in Architectural Photography. Find out more about Heritage Apprenticeships © Historic England Archive DP347660
What's New
News

In Your Area

Historic England Blog

Latest Research

Heritage Online Debate

Statements

Stay up to Date
What's New

Read about our current news, projects and campaigns nationally and in your area.

Catch up with what's new

Two horsemen reading The Sportsman, 30 Oct 1902, Farnborough, Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire. Part of the Alfred Newton and Sons collection. Source Historic England Archive. BB98/02592
About Us
What We Do

Who We Are

How We Are Funded

Contact Us

Careers

Volunteer with Historic England
About Us

Historic England is the public body that helps people care for, enjoy and celebrate England's spectacular historic environment.

Find out more

Mountbatten House (formerly Gateway House), Basing View, Basingstoke, the former headquarters for the paper merchants Wiggins Teape by Arup Associates. Listed at Grade II. © Historic England
Sign in
Manage my account

Sign out

Three bowl barrows in Holme Lane Plantation, 200m south west of Squirrel's Cottages

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

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1016728
Date first listed:: 21-Apr-1963

User submitted image — Uploaded by David White This photo may not represent the current condition of the site
View all

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.

What is the National Heritage List for England?

The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

The list includes:

🏠 Buildings
🏰 Scheduled monuments
🌳 Parks and gardens
⚔️ Battlefields
⚓ Shipwrecks

Find out more about listing

Historic England Archive

Search over 1 million photographs and drawings from the 1850s to the present day using our images archive.

Find Photos

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1016728
Date first listed:: 21-Apr-1963
Date of most recent amendment:: 06-Jul-1999

Location

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

District:: Dorset (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: East Holme
National Grid Reference:: SY 90668 85294

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.

The three bowl barrows in Holme Lane Plantation, 200m south west of Squirrel's Cottages survive well and are known from partial excavation to contain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to the monument and the landscape in which it was constructed. The group of small mounds within the vicinity of the barrows represent an unusual association which is not yet fully understood.

Details

The monument includes three bowl barrows arranged around the crest of a knoll, overlooking the Frome Valley to the north, and seven later mounds of unknown function. The barrows each have a mound with maximum dimensions of between 12m to 15m in diameter and between about 0.65m to 1m in height. Partial excavations by J Austen in 1860 identified two urns and a cremation. Further investigation conducted by Wessex Archaeology in 1991 included a contour survey and limited trenching. The barrow mounds were found to be composed of turves, with an upper layer of sand derived from the shallow quarry ditches surrounding the base of the mounds. The quarry ditches varied between 1.2m to 1.9m in width. The barrow mounds were found to overlie an old land surface which was associated with a pollen sample dominated by heather, suggesting that the area already formed heathland prior to the construction of the barrows. The western barrow mound is partially overlain by a small mound on the western side. This is part of a group of 107 such mounds noted by J Austen in 1860. Survey by the Royal Commission on the Historic Monuments of England in 1956 identified 45 examples, set out in parallel rows; most were circular in plan with dimensions of between 2.7m to 4.5m in diameter and between about 0.3m to 0.45m in height. Austen recorded that many examples supported larger trees than the surrounding area and excavation of several of the mounds revealed a composition of burnt furze. In 1956, excavation of a mound by the Royal Commission on the Historic Monuments of England indicated that it was composed of earth and turf piled over an old land surface. The only find was of a stray flint scraper and no internal structure or ditch was identified. Environmental evidence suggests a date between the Iron Age and Medieval period, although the function of these features is uncertain. Many of the mounds recorded in 1860 and 1956 have since been destroyed by clay extraction. Seven mounds within the group mapped in 1956 are included in the scheduling.

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:: 29095
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset: Volume I, (1970), 445
Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset: Volume I, (1970), 445
Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset: Volume I, (1970), 481-2
Other
Heath est. before const. of barrow,
Heath present before const. of barrow,
Location of ditch by Wessex Arch,
Location of quarry ditch by Wessex Ar,
Mention 1956 RCHME partial excavation, RCHME, National Monuments Record,
Mention identification by Austen, RCHME, National Monuments Record,
Mention part excav. by Wessex Arch,
Mention part excavation by Austen,
RCHME, National Monuments Record,

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.