Summary

The monument includes twelve barrows and cairns, probably dating from the Early to Mid-Bronze Age. They are aligned north to south, near the summit of the prominent ridge known as Crownhill Down.

Source: Historic England

Details

PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS
This monument includes twelve barrows and cairns, probably dating from the Early to Mid-Bronze Age. They are aligned north to south, near the summit of the prominent ridge known as Crownhill Down.

DESCRIPTION
The cemetery survives as a linear arrangement of round barrows, a ring cairn and two platform cairns. The ring cairn is visible as a level, circular area measuring up to 8.7m in diameter, surrounded by a circular bank of up to 1.5m wide and 0.5m high. The two platform cairns take the form of flat-topped stony mounds measuring up to 13.5m in diameter and 0.4m high. The earthworks of the round barrows comprise circular stony mounds which vary in diameter from 8.9m up to 16m in diameter and from 0.3m up to 0.8m high. The associated quarry ditches, some 2m wide, from which the construction material was derived survive as earthworks around some of the mounds, those that have become filled in over time are likely to survive as buried features. Two of the round barrows appear to be conjoined.

EXCLUSIONS: the modern fence posts are excluded from the scheduling, however, the ground beneath them is included.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

The prehistoric barrow cemetery on the ridge at Crownhill Down is scheduled for the following principal reasons:

* Potential: it will contribute to our understanding of the social organisation and burial practices of the county's Bronze Age population;
* Survival: the site survives comparatively well as earthworks with a diverse range of funerary structures including barrows, ring cairns and platform cairns;
* Documentation (archaeological): survey has enhanced our understanding of the form and survival of these features and their landscape context;
* Group value: it has strong group value with the adjacent barrow cemetery (Barrow cemetery on western slope of Crownhill Down, National Heritage List 1003201) and with other scheduled monuments in the area that collectively form an important archaeological landscape.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Fletcher, M, The Archaeolgocial Landscape of Crownhill Down and Ridding Down, South Hams, Devon: English Heritage Archaeological Investigation Report Series AI/31/2002, (2002)
Collis, J R, Gilbertson, D D, Hayes, P P, Samson, C S , 'Journal of Field Archaeology' in The Prehistoric And Medieval Field Archaeology Of Crownhill Down, Dartmoor, England, (Vol. 11, No. 1, Spring, 1984 )
Other
Devon Historic Environment Record:-1780 ,
Hughes, Simon, Crownhill Down barrow cemetery and Emmets Post round barrow, Sparkwell and Shaugh Moor Parishes, Devon: Results of an archaeological trial trench evaluation ACD253/1/1, June 2011,
PastScape Monument No:-438398 ,

Source: Historic England