Summary
The site includes the buried and earthwork remains of a Late Neolithic to Bronze Age barrow cemetery.
Reasons for Designation
Tempsford barrow cemetery is scheduled for the following principal reasons:
Rarity:
* barrow cemeteries are rare nationally and one of very few monument types to offer us insights into the lives and deaths of prehistoric communities in England;
Survival:
* as a group of barrows visible through LIDAR imagery, as cropmarks on aerial photography, and in some cases as large upstanding earthwork remains;
Diversity:
* the size of the individual barrows is varied representing a range of approaches to Bronze Age, and possibly earlier, funerary ritual;
Potential:
* for the buried deposits which retain considerable potential to provide evidence relating to social organisation and demographics, cultural associations, human development, disease, diet, and death rituals. Buried environmental evidence can also inform us about the landscape in which the barrows were constructed;
Group value:
* for its close proximity to Gannocks Castle Medieval Moated Enclosure, Blunham Bridge and the Church of St Peter at Church End. This multi-phased landscape adds a depth and chronology which collectively demonstrates the continuity and change in the use of the landscape over a period of at least 3000 years.
History
Round barrow cemeteries date to the Bronze Age (around 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 barrow cemetery at Tempsford was first identified through aerial photography interpretation and was plotted in detail as part of the Bedford Borough National Mapping Programme (NMP) in 2017. The cemetery forms part of an important prehistoric landscape in the Ivel and Great Ouse valleys and is amongst the rare surviving examples of Bronze Age cemeteries in this area, many of which have been destroyed by ploughing or later development.
Tempsford barrow cemetery survives despite levelling of some barrow mounds by arable cultivation over the years.
The cemetery holds strong group value with Gannocks Castle Medieval Moated Enclosure which lies approximately 200m to the east and is a scheduled monument (NHLE 1013419), and Blunham Bridge also a scheduled monument and Grade II listed building (NHLE 1004504, NHLE 1113881) which lies around 500m from the south-west corner of the cemetery. The Church of St Peter at Church End, listed at Grade II* lies just over 300m to the east.
Details
Principal Elements: the site includes the buried and earthwork remains of a late Neolithic-Bronze Age barrow cemetery/funerary complex. The cropmark ring ditches indicate the buried remains of thirteen barrows and an Iron Age boundary ditch with evidence of a pit alignment, possibly representing an earlier phase. At least four of the barrows show on Lidar imagery as low earthworks and these are visible on the ground.
Description: the site is located within a loop of the River Ivel close to its confluence with the River Great Ouse. The barrows are in the fields to the west and south-west of the hamlet of Church End, Tempsford, west of the A1 Great North Road.
The barrow cemetery is dispersed across the scheduled area, with ten in the northern part of the site and three close to the southern edge. The largest barrow, located in the north-east corner of the area, underwent geophysical survey in 2006 when the Friends of Gannocks Castle commissioned Pre-Construct Geophysics to undertake a fluxgate gradiometer survey of land adjacent to the castle. The barrow presents as a double ring ditch, approximately 47m in diameter with the inner ditch approximately 23m in diameter. The barrow is still visible on the ground as a spread mound suggesting the buried land surface may well be preserved beneath. This barrow is the only one in the cemetery with a double ring-ditch, suggesting it is a deliberately more elaborate barrow form or that the double ditch may represent different phases in the barrows use. Approximately 20m to the east of this barrow is a linear feature aligned roughly north to south which is believed to be an Iron Age boundary ditch. Other linear features running parallel to this include a possible pit alignment which may indicate an earlier phase in the use of the landscape.
In the fields in the north-west corner of the scheduled area, adjacent to the River Ivel, two more barrows are visible on Lidar imagery as low earthwork mounds, these are also evident on the ground as spread mounds. That at around grid reference TL1548952685 stands to at least 0.5m high. One other barrow presenting as a low earthwork lies at TL1567352431, close to the field boundary, and measures approximately 29m in diameter. The remaining nine ring ditches vary in diameter from around 29m to 44m in diameter. These are all evident as single ring ditches visible as crop marks.
Collectively the ring ditches represent a discreet barrow cemetery with other features representing later and possibly earlier phases in the use and respect of the landscape.
Extent of Scheduling: The boundary line has been drawn in order to take in the barrows with a 5m buffer zone around them for the support and maintenance of the monument. The area between the barrows has been included to provide protection for any flat burials between the crop mark and earthwork features.
Exclusions: All drain covers, pylons, fences and path surfaces are excluded from the scheduling, but the ground beneath them is included.
