Bowl Barrow northern edge of Westmere Strip, 586m south-west of Westmere Farm

Summary

Bowl barrow, most likely of Bronze Age date, northern edge of Westmere Strip.

Reasons for Designation

The bowl barrow on the northern edge of Westmere Strip, most likely of Bronze Age origin, is scheduled for the following principal reasons:

* Survival: as a preserved earthwork monument representing the diversity of burial practices, beliefs and social organisation amongst early prehistoric communities.

* Potential: for the stratified archaeological deposits which retain considerable potential to provide invaluable evidence not only for the individuals buried within but also evidence for the ideology, variation in burial practices and social organisation of the communities and social networks that were using the landscape in this way.

* Group value: for its close proximity to other related contemporary designated monuments such as the bowl barrow, on Lowster Hill (NHLE 1003931) and the two bowl barrows 250m north-west of Prince of Wales Covert (NHLE 1430411). The barrow also holds a strong spatial relationship with scheduled monuments of later periods, including three moated manorial sites; north and south of Tottington Church (NHLE 1003948 and 1003949 respectively), the site of Sturston Hall (NHLE1002890) and the site of Holy Cross Church (NHLE1003947) forming a multi-period landscape unencumbered by modern development. It therefore offers a very high level of archaeological potential, in the form of buried deposits, to enable understanding of the continuity and change in the use of the landscape up to the present day.

History

The treatment, burial and commemoration of the dead have been a distinctive part of human life for millennia, and these activities have often left physical remains. The remains of the dead have been dealt with in remarkably varied ways in the past and it appears that, in the prehistoric period especially, only a small proportion of the population received a burial which has left traces detectable using current methods. Round barrows are distinctive burial monuments which can represent both individual burials as well as larger burial groups. They are one of the main sources of information about life in this period.

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. In general round barrows comprise a rounded earthen mound or stone cairn, the earthen examples usually having a surrounding ditch and occasionally an outer bank. They range greatly in size from just 5m in diameter to as much as 40m, with the mounds ranging from slight rises to as much as 4m in height. They occur either in isolation or grouped as cemeteries and often acted as a focus for burials in later periods. Round barrows are the most numerous of the various prehistoric funerary monuments.

The most common form of round barrow is referred to as a bowl barrow. These are inverted pudding bowl-shaped mounds with slopes of varying profile, sometimes with a surrounding ditch and occasionally an outer bank.

The bowl barrow on the northern edge of Westmere Strip is believed to be Bronze Age in origin, but no archaeological excavations have taken place to confirm the date. It lies in close proximity to the currently scheduled bowl barrow, on Lowster Hill (NHLE 1003931) and the two bowl barrows 250m north-west of Prince of Wales Covert (NHLE 1430411).

Details

PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS

This bowl barrow survives as an earthen mound covered in rough grass in a fallow margin between an arable field to the north and open woodland (Westmere Strip) to the south. It measures approximately 30m wide and 0.4m high. There is evidence of an impact crater on the northern edge of the barrow measuring c1m diameter. This will undoubtedly have occurred during military training exercises.

EXTENT OF SCHEDULING

The area assessed includes a 2m buffer zone around the full circumference of the barrow.

Sources

Books and journals
Lawson, AJ, Martin, EA, Priddy, D, Taylor, A, East Anglian Archaeology Report No. 12 The Barrows of East Anglia, (1981)
Davison, A, Cushion, B, An Archaeological Survey of the Stanford Training Area 2000-2 in Norfolk Archaeology, Vol. 44, (2005), 602-616

Other
Historic Environment Record no 37065

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