Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow situated on the saddle between Prior's
Holt Hill to the south-east and Synalds Knoll to the north-west. The barrow is
visible as a well defined mound of stone and earth construction 14m in
diameter and up to 0.8m high. The profile of the mound is flattened and
slightly spread suggesting that the barrow has been ploughed at some time in
the past. Although no longer visible at ground level, a ditch, from which
material was quarried during the construction of the monument, surrounds the
mound. This has become infilled over the years but survives as a buried
feature some 2m wide.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features,
considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

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. There are over 10,000 surviving bowl
barrows recorded nationally (many more have already been destroyed), occurring
across most of lowland Britain. 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
and a substantial proportion of surviving examples are considered worthy of
protection.

Despite being spread by past ploughing, the bowl barrow on Prior's Holt Hill
survives well and is a good example of this class of round barrow. It appears
to be intact and will retain archaeological deposits and environmental
evidence from the old land surface sealed beneath the mound and in the ditch
fill. It is one of several such monuments in this area, and, as such,
contributes information relating to the intensity of settlement and the nature
of land use in the area during the Bronze Age.

Source: Historic England