Summary

Two bowl barrows 680m west of Hampton Farm.

Source: Historic England

Details

This record was the subject of a minor enhancement on 10 February 2016. 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.

This monument, which falls into two separate areas, includes two bowl barrows situated on the upper south east facing slopes of a prominent hill at the head of a small dry valley leading to the valley of the South Winterborne. The barrows survive as circular mounds surrounded by buried quarry ditches from which the construction material was derived. The western mound is flat topped and measures up to 18m in diameter and 0.5m high. The eastern mound is 19m in diameter and up to 0.7m high.

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 superficially similar, although differing widely in size, they exhibit regional variations in form and a diversity of burial practices. 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 reduction in the height of the mounds through past cultivation the two bowl barrows 680m west of Hampton Farm survive comparatively well and will contain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to their construction, relative chronologies, territorial significance, social organisation, ritual and funerary practices and overall landscape context.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
PastScape 453669

Source: Historic England