Round barrow cemetery on Broad Down

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

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1017642
Date first listed:: 20-Mar-1951

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1017642
Date first listed:: 20-Mar-1951
Date of most recent amendment:: 23-Feb-1998

Location

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

County:: Devon
District:: East Devon (District Authority)
Parish:: Farway
County:: Devon
District:: East Devon (District Authority)
Parish:: Southleigh
National Grid Reference:: SY 17006 94420, SY 17025 93722, SY 17106 93680, SY 17157 94464, SY 17311 94343, SY 17420 94437, SY 17452 93500, SY 17549 94592

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 some limited damage over the years due to cultivation and, in one case ditching, the round barrow cemetery on Broad Down survives well and will contain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to the monument and the landscape in which it was built. The cemetery is one component of the larger Bronze Age necropolis which stretches over Farway Hill, Gittisham Hill and Broad Down and which has produced burials recognisably close in style to those of Bronze Age Wessex.

Details

The monument, which falls into eight areas, includes a round barrow cemetery, in which some of the barrows are arranged in a linear formation, some are clustered in groups or pairs, and others are relatively isolated. The barrows occupy a position on the 1km square expanse of Broad Down, above the River Sid, towards the southern end of the Greensand plateau which stretches from the Blackdown Hills to the South Devon coast; they represent the southernmost barrows within the Farway/Gittisham/Broad Down Bronze Age necropolis. The barrows survive as earthworks and below ground remains recorded over the years by way of excavation, field observations and survey. Some of the barrows retain clearly visible mounds whilst others have been levelled by cultivation. The focus of the cemetery in terms of its visual aspect is provided by a group of seven bowl barrows in linear formation aligned north-south over a distance of 220m with no more than 35m between any two of the mounds. All of these barrows, with the exception of the southernmost, lie north of the east-west road which bisects Broad Down. The three northernmost barrows of the linear group all have visibly defined mounds and have not suffered from the same degree of ploughing as others in the group, although one of them has a deep unfilled antiquarian excavation trench running across it. The remainder have been reduced in height whilst the rim of the southernmost barrow is barely visible at ground level. The height of the mounds within the linear group varies between 0.15m and 1.5m and their diameter varies between 12.5m and 27m; at least one of the group was found to have had a surrounding quarry ditch and was reported in excavation as having an overall diameter of 36m. To the west of the linear group, in a field known as Seven Barrow Field, is a further group of at least six barrows clustered close together but in no obvious formation. The height of the barrow mounds in Seven Barrow Field varies between 0.2m and 1.7m which represents the highest survival in the cemetery as a whole. The diameter of their mounds varies between 14m and 34m; at least one of the group has evidence for a surrounding quarry ditch which is visible as a slight depression around the mound. The remainder of the barrows in the cemetery are in groups of two or three or are now apparently single barrows. These barrows vary in height between 0.06m and 1m and between 7.4m and 40m in diameter. At least 11 of the barrows in the cemetery have been partially excavated - the majority of these by Kirwan in the 1860s and 1870s. The excavations revealed a variety of construction techniques for the mounds associated with different types of cremation burials sometimes within a central stone cist. Recovered grave goods included shale cups and at least one socketed bronze axe. Evidence for secondary burials was quite frequently reported. Excluded from the scheduling is all fencing, gates and gate posts and metalled surfaces, although the ground beneath these features is included.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 29634
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Burnard, R, 'Devonshire Association Transactions' in Eighteenth Report of the Barrow Committee, (1899)
Burnard, R, 'Devonshire Association Transactions' in Eighteenth Report of the Barrow Committee, (1899), 95
Fox, A, 'Devon Archaeological Society Exploration Proceedings' in The Broad Down Necropolis and the Wessex Culture in Devon, , Vol. 4, (1952), 18
Fox, A, 'Devon Archaeological Society Exploration Proceedings' in The Broad Down Necropolis and the Wessex Culture in Devon, , Vol. 4, (1952), 19
Fox, A, 'Devon Archaeological Society Exploration Proceedings' in The Broad Down Necropolis and the Wessex Culture in Devon, , Vol. 4, (1952), 19
Fox, A, 'Devon Archaeological Society Exploration Proceedings' in The Broad Down Necropolis and the Wessex Culture in Devon, , Vol. 4, (1952), 19
Fox, A, 'Devon Archaeological Society Exploration Proceedings' in The Broad Down Necropolis and the Wessex Culture in Devon, , Vol. 4, (1952), 18
Grinsell, L V, 'Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society' in The Barrows of South and East Devon, , Vol. 41, (1983), 33-34
Grinsell, L V, 'Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society' in The Barrows of South and East Devon, , Vol. 41, (1983), 34
Grinsell, L V, 'Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society' in The Barrows of South and East Devon, , Vol. 41, (1983), 34
Grinsell, L V, 'Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society' in The Barrows of South and East Devon, , Vol. 41, (1983), 43
Grinsell, L V, 'Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society' in The Barrows of South and East Devon, , Vol. 41, (1983), 34
Grinsell, L V, 'Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society' in The Barrows of South and East Devon, , Vol. 41, (1983), 35
Grinsell, L V, 'Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society' in The Barrows of South and East Devon, , Vol. 41, (1983), 35
Grinsell, L V, 'Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society' in The Barrows of South and East Devon, , Vol. 41, (1983), 34
Grinsell, L V, 'Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society' in The Barrows of South and East Devon, , Vol. 41, (1983), 34
Grinsell, L V, 'Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society' in The Barrows of South and East Devon, , Vol. 41, (1983), 34
Grinsell, L V, 'Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society' in The Barrows of South and East Devon, , Vol. 41, (1983), 34
Grinsell, L V, 'Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society' in The Barrows of South and East Devon, , Vol. 41, (1983), 34
Grinsell, L V, 'Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society' in The Barrows of South and East Devon, , Vol. 41, (1983), 34
Grinsell, L V, 'Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society' in The Barrows of South and East Devon, , Vol. 41, (1983), 35
Grinsell, L V, 'Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society' in The Barrows of South and East Devon, , Vol. 41, (1983), 35
Grinsell, L V, 'Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society' in The Barrows of South and East Devon, , Vol. 41, (1983), 35
Hutchinson, , 'Report and Transactions of the Devonshire Association' in Report on Barrows near Sidmouth, , Vol. 12, (1880)
Kirwan, R, 'Report of the Transactions of the Devonshire Association' in Notes On The Prehistoric Archaeology of East Devon, Part III, , Vol. 4(i), (1870), 295-304
Kirwan, R, 'Report of the Transactions of the Devonshire Association' in Notes On The Prehistoric Archaeology of East Devon, Part III, , Vol. 4(i), (1870), 302-3
Kirwan, R, 'Report of the Transactions of the Devonshire Association' in Notes On The Prehistoric Archaeology of East Devon, Part III, , Vol. 4(i), (1870), 301-2
Kirwan, R, 'Report of the Transactions of the Devonshire Association' in Memoir of the Examination of Three Barrows at Broad Down, Farway, , Vol. 2, (1868), 619-49
Kirwan, R, 'Report of the Transactions of the Devonshire Association' in Memoir of the Examination of Three Barrows at Broad Down, Farway, , Vol. 2, (1868), 641-5
Kirwan, R, 'Report of the Transactions of the Devonshire Association' in Memoir of the Examination of Three Barrows at Broad Down, Farway, , Vol. 2, (1868), 634-41
Kirwan, R, 'Report of the Transactions of the Devonshire Association' in Memoir of the Examination of Three Barrows at Broad Down, Farway, , Vol. 2, (1868), 619-49
Simpson, S, Noble, S, 'EMAFU Reports' in Archaeological Management/Survey Study of Broad Down, East Devon, , Vol. 93.38, (1993), 26
Simpson, S, Noble, S, 'EMAFU Reports' in Archaeological Management/Survey Study of Broad Down, East Devon, , Vol. 93.38, (1993), 24
Simpson, S, Noble, S, 'EMAFU Reports' in Archaeological Management/Survey Study of Broad Down, East Devon, , Vol. 93.38, (1993), 23-4
Simpson, S, Noble, S, 'EMAFU Reports' in Archaeological Management/Survey Study of Broad Down, East Devon, , Vol. 93.38, (1993), 25
Simpson, S, Noble, S, 'EMAFU Reports' in Archaeological Management/Survey Study of Broad Down, East Devon, , Vol. 93.38, (1993), 24
Simpson, S, Noble, S, 'EMAFU Reports' in Archaeological Management/Survey Study of Broad Down, East Devon, , Vol. 93.38, (1993), 23
Simpson, S, Noble, S, 'EMAFU Reports' in Archaeological Management/Survey Study of Broad Down, East Devon, , Vol. 93.38, (1993), 26
Simpson, S, Noble, S, 'EMAFU Reports' in Archaeological Management/Survey Study of Broad Down, East Devon, , Vol. 93.38, (1993), 25
Simpson, S, Noble, S, 'EMAFU Reports' in Archaeological Management/Survey Study of Broad Down, East Devon, , Vol. 93.38, (1993), 24-25
Simpson, S, Noble, S, 'EMAFU Reports' in Archaeological Management/Survey Study of Broad Down, East Devon, , Vol. 93.38, (1993), 25-6
Simpson, S, Noble, S, 'EMAFU Reports' in Archaeological Management/Survey Study of Broad Down, East Devon, , Vol. 93.38, (1993), 24-26
Other
Sainsbury, Parish Worksheet (unpublished), 1991,
Timms, S, (1997)
Title: Ordnance Survey Source Date: 1948 Author: Publisher: Surveyor:
Title: Ordnance Survey Source Date: 1957 Author: Publisher: Surveyor:
Title: Ordnance Survey Source Date: 1975 Author: Publisher: Surveyor:
Title: Ordnance Survey Source Date: 1975 Author: Publisher: Surveyor:
Title: Ordnance Survey Source Date: 1982 Author: Publisher: Surveyor:
Title: Ordnance Survey Source Date: 1982 Author: Publisher: Surveyor:

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.