Summary

Bowl barrow on Plumstead Common, 258m north-east of Head Keepers Lodge.

Source: Historic England

Details

This record was the subject of a minor enhancement on 24 March 2015. This record has been generated from an "old county number" (OCN) scheduling record. These are monuments that were not reviewed under the Monuments Protection Programme and are some of our oldest designation records.

The monument includes a bowl barrow situated on the summit of a hill at the centre of Plumstead Common.

The barrow survives as a roughly circular-shaped mound about 17m in diameter and up to about 1m high. The surrounding quarry ditch from which material to construct the mound was derived will survive as a buried feature, having become in-filled over the years. A depression in the centre of the mound may represent an unrecorded excavation in the past. The barrow is shown on OS Maps of 1896 and 1916 (1:2500).

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

Bowl barrows, the most numerous form of round barrow, are funerary monuments dating from the Late Neolithic period to the Late Bronze Age, with most examples belonging to the period 2400-1500 BC. They were constructed as earthen or rubble mounds, sometimes ditched, which covered single or multiple burials. They occur either in isolation or grouped as cemeteries and often acted as a focus for burials in later periods. 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 organisations amongst early prehistoric communities. They are particularly representative of their period.

Despite some damage in the past, the bowl barrow on Plumstead Common survives well. It will contain archaeological information and environmental evidence relating to the barrow and the landscape in which it was constructed.

Source: Historic England