Wins Barrow: bowl barrow 160m south east of Bourton Hill Farm

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.

Despite damage to parts of the monument caused by road building, the bowl barrow 160m south east of Bourton Hill Farm will contain archaeological remains providing information about Bronze Age beliefs, economy and environment.

Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow situated on the crest of Bourton Hill, on the edge of a steep, east facing, slope. The monument is bisected, north-south, by a road and is cut on the south west side by a farm track. It has a mound 32m in diameter, east-west. East of the road the mound shows as pronounced rise in the grass verge with north-south dimensions of 20m and reaches a maximum height of 0.9m in the adjacent woodland. West of the road it reaches a maximum height of 0.5m and has, presumably, been ploughed in the past. Although no trace of the ditch surrounding the mound can be seen on the surface, it will survive as a buried feature 3m wide. The monument lies on the boundary line between two parishes and is referred to as Winesbeorg, or Wins barrow, in a Saxon charter thought to date from AD 779. All road surfaces and make-up, field boundaries and gates and the telegraph pole are excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath these features 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:

29788

Legacy System:

RSM

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.