Two bowl barrows on East Kimber Common 525m north west of Stoney

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

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1018523
Date first listed:: 16-Apr-1999

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1018523
Date first listed:: 16-Apr-1999

Location

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

County:: Devon
District:: West Devon (District Authority)
Parish:: Northlew
National Grid Reference:: SX 49288 97325

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 reduction in their height due to cultivation, the two bowl barrows on East Kimber Common survive comparatively well on a prominent ridge top location. Archaeological and environmental information relating to the monument and the landscape in which it was constructed survives in and under these mounds.

Details

This monument includes two bowl barrows situated on East Kimber Common on a prominent upland ridge with commanding views across to Dartmoor, Exmoor and Bodmin Moor. The western barrow is circular, has a diameter of 25.4m and is 0.6m high. The second barrow, which lies 63.2m north east of the first is 21.6m in diameter and 0.4m high and is most pronounced on its eastern side. The surrounding quarry ditches of both barrows, from which material to construct the mounds was derived, survive as buried features. Another barrow lying to the south west is the subject of a separate 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:: 32195
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Other
Devon County Sites and Monuments Register, SX49NE5, (1983)
MPP fieldwork by H. Gerrard, Gerrard, H., (1997)

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.