Barrow cemetery 450m N of Markshall Farm

Summary

A late Neolithic or Bronze Age barrow cemetery visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs.

Reasons for Designation

The barrow cemetery 450m north of Markshall Farm is scheduled for the following principal reasons:

* Survival: the remains of the barrows are visible as a clearly defined group of crop marks on aerial photography;

* Period: the barrows are highly representative of their period of construction in the late Neolithic or Bronze Age;

* Documentation: the cropmark remains of the site have been recorded by aerial photographic interpretation since 1929, and the site was researched and mapped during the National Mapping Programme (NMP) project in 2010;

* Diversity: the size of the individual barrows is varied representing a range of approaches to Bronze Age funerary ritual and may suggest use over a long period of time;

* 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 the close grouping of these barrows and a nearby scheduled multi-phased site dating from the Neolithic to the Anglo-Saxon period east of Harford Farm. They form part of a wider group of ceremonial and funerary monuments focused on the confluence of the Rivers Tas and Yare, including a scheduled henge type monument and D-shaped enclosure 300m west of Twins Farm, and a scheduled henge at Arminghall, located around 1.5km to the north-east.

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. 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 organisation amongst early prehistoric communities. Round barrows are the most numerous of the various prehistoric funerary monuments.

Round barrows occur either in isolation or grouped as cemeteries and often acted as a focus for burials in later periods. Groups of round barrows or barrow cemeteries comprise closely spaced groups of up to 30 round barrows. 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. Round barrow cemeteries occur across most of lowland Britain, with a marked concentration in Wessex and in some cases are clustered around other important contemporary monuments.

Cropmarks at Markshall were recorded from aerial photographs (APs) in 1929 by Gilbert Insall and H Frederick Low. In 1934 Roy Rainbird Clarke published ‘Notes on the archaeology of Markshall’, including a map showing ‘Principal crop-markings inserted from air-photographs, 1928–1933’. The barrow cemetery north of Markshall Farm was scheduled in 1950 as part of a larger group of ‘Sites discovered by air photography at Markshall’ and described as ‘S.W. of the Carr circular crop markings show in air photograph taken in 1933’. The site was researched and mapped during the National Mapping Programme (NMP) project in 2010 and research carried out as part of this assessment shows the cropmarks are still visible on aerial photographs taken on 13 August 2024, demonstrating the continued survival of below ground archaeological deposits.

Details

PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS: The site of a late Neolithic or Bronze Age barrow cemetery is visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs to the west of the River Tas centred around TG 2343 0464; it is sited on a slight crest at around 5m AOD overlooking the river to the east. The cemetery comprises at least three, possibly five, individual barrows in a north-south alignment, parallel with the course of the Tas to the east. The site is located approximately 650m south of the henge-like monument and D-shaped enclosure located around 300m west of Twins Farm (NHLE 1002887) and nearly 1km north-east of another barrow cemetery east of Harford Farm (NHLE 1495429). Together these form part of a wider group of ceremonial and funerary monuments focused on the confluence of the Rivers Tas and Yare, including a scheduled henge at Arminghall (NHLE 1003985), located around 1.5km to the north-east.

DESCRIPTION: The northernmost of the three barrows (NHER 51961) is centred at TG 2343 0470 and comprises an irregular, almost octagonal, penannular ring-ditch measuring around 40m in diameter and enclosing around 0.15ha. On the south-east side of the ring-ditch is a narrow causeway approximately 1.25m wide. Aerial photos taken during the 1940s, 1950s, 1970s, and 1990s show a soilmark indicating the remains of a nearly levelled central mound. The mound is separated from the ring-ditch by a berm around 5.5m wide. The 2010 National Mapping Programme (NMP) project recorded the cropmark remains of a much slighter inner ring-ditch enclosing the mound, with a possible central grave within (or beneath) the mound. The NMP project also recorded a medieval or post-medieval field boundary or trackway that appears to respect the eastern side of the barrow indicating it was an extant earthwork at this time.

Lying 55m to the south, the central of the three barrows (NHER 51962), centred around TG 2343 0461, comprises a single ring-ditch with a diameter of around 28m enclosing a remnant mound; it is surrounded by an outer bank with a diameter of up to 40m. Both the central mound and external bank were last visible on available aerial photographs taken in 1992. The mound is separated from the ring-ditch by a berm around 4m wide, with another berm of around 3m separating the ditch from the external bank. 

Around 10m further south, the southernmost of the three barrows (NHER 51963) centred around TG 2342 0457, comprises a levelled barrow mound with a diameter of around 20m; there is no evidence of an external ring-ditch. The barrow was last visible as a soilmark on 1992 vertical photographs.

No earthworks relating to these three barrows were observed on 1m resolution lidar data in 2025. 

EXTENT OF SCHEDULING: The scheduled area is marked on the attached map and includes a 5m buffer zone, which is considered necessary for the support and preservation of the monument.

Sources

Books and journals
Clarke, R, Notes on the archaeology of Markshall in Norfolk Archaeology, Vol. 25, (1934), 354–67
Ashwin, T, Bates, S, Excavations on the Norwich Southern Bypass, 1989–91. Part I: excavations at Bixley, Caistor St Edmund, Trowse, Cringleford and Little Melton in East Anglian Archaeology, (2000), 91

Websites
Norfolk Heritage Explorer, ‘NHER Number 51961, Cropmarks of a late Neolithic and/or Bronze Age barrow with a penannular ditch’, accessed 04 November 2025 from https://www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk/record-details?MNF59262-Cropmarks-of-a-late-Neolithic-and-or-Bronze-Age-barrow-with-a-penannular-ditch&Index=2&RecordCount=1&SessionID=4eb1ef98-3d48-4c8c-8fb6-cfe5623cb0a2
Norfolk Heritage Explorer, ‘NHER Number 51962, Cropmarks and soilmarks of a Bronze Age barrow with an outer bank’, accessed 04 November 2025 from https://www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk/record-details?MNF59263-Cropmarks-and-soilmarks-of-a-Bronze-Age-barrow-with-an-outer-bank&Index=2&RecordCount=1&SessionID=9d548e99-76be-480a-97ec-c9e5775148a7
Norfolk Heritage Explorer, ‘NHER Number 51963, Soilmarks of a Bronze Age barrow west of the River Tas’, accessed 04 November 2025 from https://www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk/record-details?MNF59273-Soilmarks-of-a-Bronze-Age-barrow-west-of-the-River-Tas&Index=2&RecordCount=1&SessionID=8e4dbcbf-8d49-4528-a7ed-7a5d06678182
Norfolk Heritage Explorer, ‘NHER Number 51966, Bronze Age barrow cemetery west of the River Tas’, accessed 04 November 2025 from https://www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk/record-details?MNF59278-Bronze-Age-barrow-cemetery-west-of-the-River-Tas&Index=2&RecordCount=1&SessionID=09d2a5c0-da55-4071-9027-5ac45c2815c3

Other
Bales, E, Cattermole, A and Horlock, S, The Archaeology of Norwich ‘Growth Point’ and Environs: results of the Norwich Growth Point National Mapping Programme (NMP) Project. English Heritage Research Report 115/2010 (2010)

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