Bowl Barrow at Mill Hill

Summary

Bowl barrow at Mill Hill, most likely of Bronze Age origin, possibly reused as a windmill mound.

Reasons for Designation

The bowl barrow at Mill Hill, most likely of Bronze Age origins is scheduled for the following principal reasons:

* Survival: as a well 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 and contemporary scheduled monuments such as the bowl barrows, on Lowster Hill (NHLE 1003931) at Waterhouse Lodge (NHLE 1004039) and the group of tumuli on Sparrow Hill (1004037). The barrow also forms part of a multi-period landscape unencumbered by modern development and therefore offers a very high level of archaeological potential to enable understanding of the continuity and change in the use of the landscape from the Bronze Age 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 barrow currently being assessed has been known as Mill Hill from at least the late C19 when it is shown as such on the first edition Ordnance Survey map. The mound has most likely gained its name from the fact it functioned as a windmill mound and there is suggestion a windmill stood here c1880-90 (Clarke, 1913) but no evidence to substantiate this. Evidence of a surrounding ditch adds weight to the theory that this was originally constructed as a barrow, probably in the Bronze Age, but possibly later reused as a mill mound.

Details

PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS
This barrow survives as an earthen mound covered in rough grass and bracken with a surrounding ditch. The mound measures approximately 27m in diameter and 1.8m high with a 2m berm between the mound and surrounding ditch. The ditch is evident as a very shallow depression but the growth of bracken and nettles follow the line of the ditch particularly on the south and west sides indicating the line of the feature. The ditch is c3m wide.

EXTENT OF SCHEDULING
The scheduled area includes a 2m buffer zone around the combined circumference of the mound and ditch.

Sources

Books and journals
Clarke, W G, In Breckland Wilds, (1925), 186
Lawson, AJ, Martin, EA, Priddy, D, Taylor, A, East Anglian Archaeology Report No. 12 The Barrows of East Anglia, (1981)
Clarke, W G, Norfolk Barrows in Antiquary, Vol. XLIX, (1913), 422-23

Other
Norfolk Historic Environment Record no. 7370

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.

Print the official list entry