Bowl barrow 650m south east of Telegraph Plantation

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

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1018045
Date first listed:: 10-Jun-1998

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1018045
Date first listed:: 10-Jun-1998

Location

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

County:: Suffolk
District:: West Suffolk (District Authority)
Parish:: Icklingham
National Grid Reference:: TL 78702 73228

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 bowl barrow 650m south east of Telegraph Plantation survives well and will retain archaeological information concerning its construction and the manner and duration of its use. Evidence for the local environment prior to and during that time will also be preserved in soils buried beneath the mound and in the fills of the buried ditch. The proximity of the barrow to a number of other barrows in this part of the Breckland region, and in particular the Icklingham barrow cemetery which lies approximately 60m to the north, give it additional interest. Many of these barrows are sited on land which was in the past and in some cases still is heathland. Together these barrows give some evidence of the character, development and density of the prehistoric population in this area.

Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow located on a gentle south facing slope on the west edge of the King's Forest. The barrow is visible as an earthen mound which stands to a height of about 0.8m and covers a roughly circular area with a maximum diameter of about 32m. It is thought that the mound is encircled by a ditch with an estimated width of 3m from which earth was quarried during the construction of the barrow. Although this has now become completely infilled and is no longer visible, it will survive as a buried feature. The fences which run across the mound, and the surface of the forest track which extends in a north-south direction on the eastern side of the monument are excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath them 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:: 31103
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 Culture, Media and Sport.