Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow, one in a linear cemetery of ten Bronze
Age round barrows, seven of which are upstanding, situated along the floor of
a dry valley between Thorn Down and Great Litchfield Down.
The barrow mound is 35m in diameter and 3.5m high. Surrounding the barrow
mound is a ditch from which material was quarried during its construction.
This has become infilled over the years but survives as a buried feature 6m
wide.
Slight irregularities in the surface of the barrow mound are evidence of the
partial excavation of the barrow undertaken, along with that of others in the
cemetery, in the 19th century. Both cremation and inhumation burials were
found, but the excavation records are such that it is not possible to assign
individual burials to any particular barrow.

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

Round barrow cemeteries date to the Bronze Age (c.2000-700 BC). They comprise
closely-spaced groups of up to 30 round barrows - rubble or earthen mounds
covering single or multiple burials. Most cemeteries developed over a
considerable period of time, often many centuries, and in some cases acted as
a focus for burials as late as the early medieval period. They exhibit
considerable diversity of burial rite, plan and form, frequently including
several different types of round barrow, occasionally associated with earlier
long barrows. Where large scale investigation has been undertaken around them,
contemporary or later "flat" burials between the barrow mounds have often been
revealed. Round barrow cemeteries occur across most of lowland Britain, with a
marked concentration in Wessex. In some cases, they are clustered around other
important contemporary monuments such as henges. Often occupying prominent
locations, they are a major historic element in the modern landscape, whilst
their diversity and their longevity as a monument type provide important
information on the variety of beliefs and social organisation amongst early
prehistoric communities. They are particularly representative of their period
and a substantial proportion of surviving or partly-surviving examples are
considered worthy of protection.

This barrow in the Thorn Down barrow cemetery is well preserved and represents
a good example of its class. Despite partial excavation, the barrow will
contain archaeological and environmental information relating to its
construction and use and an understanding of the cemetery of which it is a
part.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Grinsell, L V, 'Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club' in Hampshire Barrows, , Vol. 14(3), (1940), 347
Other
Carnarvon, Earl of , Unpublished transcript of letter, 1800,

Source: Historic England