Bowl barrow 220m east of Spry's Shop Cross, forming part of a round barrow cemetery

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.

The bowl barrow 220m east of Spry's Shop Cross, which forms part of a round barrow cemetery, survives comparatively well and will contain both archaeological and environmental information relating to the monument and its surrounding landscape. Bowl barrows are the most numerous form of round barrow, with over 10,000 examples recorded nationally, they were constructed as earthen or rubble mounds each covering single or multiple burials.

Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow situated on an upland ridge overlooking the valley of a tributary to the River Claw, forming part of a round barrow cemetery. Seven other barrows which make up the cemetery lie to the south west, east and south east and are the subject of separate schedulings. The barrow includes a circular mound 19.9m in diameter and 1m high, surrounded by a quarry ditch from which material to construct the mound was derived. This ditch measures approximately 3m in width and partially underlies the field boundaries to the east and north of the barrow; elsewhere it survives as a buried feature, being barely discernible to the south as a flat area. The field boundaries which cross the edges of the monument to the north and east, together with the stock proof fences and a small trough on the eastern boundary only, 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.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

34266

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Other
Devon County Sites and Monuments Register, SX39NE13, (1983)

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.