Bowl barrow, 540m west of Brimble Pit Pool
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Scheduled Monument
- List Entry Number:
- 1415589
- Date first listed:
- 21-Aug-2013
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Location
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Scheduled Monument
- List Entry Number:
- 1415589
- Date first listed:
- 21-Aug-2013
- Location Description:
- The barrow is centred on NGR ST 50257 50847.
Location
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Somerset (Unitary Authority)
- Parish:
- Westbury
- National Grid Reference:
- ST5025750847
Summary
The earthwork and buried remains of a bowl barrow situated approximately 540m west of Brimble Pit Pool. It is one of a group of three barrows.
Reasons for Designation
The bowl barrow 540m west of Brimple Pit Pool is scheduled for the following principal reasons:
* Survival: a good example of a Bronze Age bowl barrow that survives well in the form of earthworks and buried archaeological features;
* Group value: it forms a group with two other barrows;
* Potential: it will contribute to our understanding of the social organisation and burial practices of the country's Bronze Age population.
History
The main period of round barrow construction occurred in the Early Bronze Age between about 2200-1500 BC (a period when cremation succeeded inhumation as the primary burial rite), although Neolithic examples are known from as early as 3000 BC. These funerary monuments were constructed as earthen mounds, sometimes ditched, which covered single or multiple burials. They occur either in isolation or grouped as cemeteries and often acted as a focus of burials in later periods.
The bowl barrow (ST 50257 50847) approximately 540m west of Brimble Pit Pool and 190m north-east of the bell barrow known as Westbury Beacon is depicted as a tumulus on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1885. E K Tratman (1923-5) noted 'a disturbed flat area on top' of the mound, possibly the result of an unrecorded previous excavation.
Details
Principal elements
A bowl barrow which dates from the Late Neolithic to the Late Bronze Age and is situated on a south-facing Mendip escarpment.
Description
It survives as a sub-circular earthwork surrounded by a buried quarry ditch, some 2m wide, from which the construction material was derived. Its mound measures approximately 22m in diameter and 2m high and contains a central depression, possibly an excavation hollow.
Extent of scheduling
The scheduling boundary around the bowl barrow includes a 2m margin for the support and protection of the monument.
Sources
Websites
Fieldwork, accessed from http://www.ubss.org.uk/resources/proceedings/vol2/UBSS_Proc_2_3_274-297.pdf
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.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 30-Jun-2026 at 05:24:27.
Download a full scale map (PDF)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.