Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow situated on lowland heath close to the
Dorset coast.
The barrow mound is c.1m high and 19m across. Surrounding the mound is a ditch
from which material was quarried during the construction of the monument. This
has become infilled over the years and can no longer be seen at ground level,
but survives as a buried feature c.3.5m wide.
A Late Bronze Age bucket-shaped urn, containing a cremation and covered by a
small cairn of locally derived flints, was found on the extreme edge of the
barrow in 1937.

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 some damage over the years, the bowl barrow known as 'Povington
Barrow' on East Holme Range contains archaeological remains and environmental
evidence relating to the monument and the landscape in which it was
constructed. This barrow is one of a number to survive on the heathland
between the River Frome and the coast.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, , County of Dorset , (1970), 454
Frend, W H C, 'Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeology Soc' in Povington Barrow, , Vol. 71(1949), (1949), 68-69

Source: Historic England