Three bowl barrows forming part of Bratley Plain round barrow cemetery

Overview

Heritage Category: Scheduled Monument

List Entry Number: 1017572

Date first listed: 09-Sep-1992

Location

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

National Park: NEW FOREST

National Grid Reference: SU 21736 08997

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.

The Bratley Plain round barrow cemetery contains a significantly large number of small undisturbed barrows. The survival of so many small barrows within a cemetery is a particularly uncommon phenomenon in southern England. Although some of the larger mounds have been partially disturbed, all the barrows retain undisturbed remains and the cemetery as a whole has considerable archaeological potential. The New Forest region is known to have been important in terms of lowland Bronze Age occupation and a considerable amount of archaeological evidence has survived because of a lack of agricultural activity, the result of later climatic deterioration, development of heath and the establishment of a Royal Forest.

History

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

Details

This monument includes three bowl barrows forming part of Bratley Plain round barrow cemetery situated on lowland heath overlooking Backley Bottom. The two southern barrow mounds both measure 6m in diameter and stand up to 0.2m high. The northern mound measures 5m in diameter and is 0.2m high. Although no longer visible at ground level, ditches, from which material was quarried during the construction of the barrows, surround each mound. These have become infilled over the years but survive as buried features c.1m wide.

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: 20319

Legacy System: RSM

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.