Details

The monument includes a well preserved bowl barrow situated on the edge of a
north facing ridge of high ground. The barrow mound is flat topped, has a
diameter of 24m and stands to a height of 1.6m, the top of the mound being
slightly hollowed. Surrounding the mound are traces of a ditch from which
material was quarried during the construction of the monument. This survives
as a shallow earthwork 3.5m wide and 0.2m deep around the north, south and
eastern sides of the mound but is obscured in the western quadrant by the line
of a fire break.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.

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.

The Swinley Park barrow survives well with no evidence for disturbance of the
mound or the surrounding ditch, though this is overlain in its western
quadrant by the line of a fire break. As such it is a good example of its
class, and has potential for the recovery of archaeological remains and
environmental evidence relating to the landscape in which the monument was
constructed.

Source: Historic England