Round barrow 440m north of Blansby Park 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.

Although the round barrow 440m north of Blansby Park Farm has been reduced by agricultural activity, significant archaeological deposits will be preserved. It is one of many similar monuments in the immediate area and will preserve important evidence of the ritual use of the landscape. Excavation of other round barrows in the region have shown that they demonstrate a very wide range of burial rites from simple scatters of cremated material to coffin inhumations and cremations contained in urns, typically dating to the Bronze Age. A common factor is that barrows were normally used for more than one burial and that the primary burial was frequently on or below the original ground surface, often with secondary burials located within the body of the mound. Most barrows include a small number of grave goods. These are often small pottery food vessels, but stone, bone, jet and bronze items have also occasionally been found.

Details

The monument includes buried remains of a prehistoric round barrow. It is located in the central part of the area of land known as Blansby Park, which lies on the southern limestone fringe of the predominantly sandstone North York Moors. It occupies a broad promontory of undulating land defined by the deep valleys of Gundale Beck to the west and Newton Dale to the east and south. Archaeological evidence shows that the land was used intensively in the prehistoric, Roman and medieval periods for agricultural, industrial and ritual purposes and although the land has been enclosed and mostly ploughed since World War II, remains of these activities still survive today. Originally the barrow had an earth and stone mound shown on a map in 1928 to measure approximately 15m in diameter. The mound has subsequently been reduced by agricultural activity but remains of it can still be identified as a low mound 0.2m in height. Although the mound has been reduced in height, evidence of its construction and remains of burials will survive below ground. Similar monuments in the area have been found to have contained human skeletons and cremation burials contained in pits up to 1m below ground level.

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:

35464

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Smith, M J B, Excavated Bronze Age Burial Mounds of Durham and N' land., (1994), 1-22

End of official list entry

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