Bowl barrow in Plumley Wood, 630m east of decoy pond, on Cranborne Common

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

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1018759
Date first listed:: 04-Feb-1999

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1018759
Date first listed:: 04-Feb-1999

Location

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

County:: Hampshire
District:: New Forest (District Authority)
Parish:: Ellingham, Harbridge and Ibsley
National Grid Reference:: SU1134610653

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 in Plumley Wood 630m east of decoy pond on Cranborne Common, survives well and will contain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to the monument and the landscape in which it was constructed. This is one of a number of barrows surviving in this area of Ringwood Forest.

Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow situated on level ground south of Sleep Valley. The barrow has a mound composed of sand, earth and turf, with maximum dimensions of 24m in diameter and about 1.2m in height. Surrounding the mound is a ditch from which material was quarried during the construction of the monument. This has become infilled over the years, but will survive as a buried feature 2.5m 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:: 31913
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.