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Bowl barrow 820m south of Bristol Plain Farm: part of a linear round barrow cemetery

A Scheduled Monument in Rodney Stoke, Somerset

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Coordinates

Latitude: 51.2576 / 51°15'27"N

Longitude: -2.7121 / 2°42'43"W

OS Eastings: 350402.273004

OS Northings: 151181.891156

OS Grid: ST504511

Mapcode National: GBR MK.14P0

Mapcode Global: VH89J.YN28

Entry Name: Bowl barrow 820m south of Bristol Plain Farm: part of a linear round barrow cemetery

Scheduled Date: 19 December 1929

Last Amended: 19 September 1994

Source: Historic England

Source ID: 1008089

English Heritage Legacy ID: 13914

County: Somerset

Civil Parish: Rodney Stoke

Traditional County: Somerset

Lieutenancy Area (Ceremonial County): Somerset

Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow located on level ground at the boundary of
Rodney Stoke and Westbury parishes. It is visible as a barrow mound 17m in
diameter and c.1m high at its highest point. Although no longer visible at
ground level a ditch, from which material was quarried during the construction
of the monument, surrounds the barrow mound. This has become infilled over
the years but survives as a buried feature c.3m wide.
A drystone wall running roughly east to west crosses the barrow mound. A
second drystone wall runs south from this point. Both walls are excluded from
the scheduling, although the ground beneath them is included.

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.

The bowl barrow 820m south of Bristol Plain Farm survives well and contains
archaeological and environmental evidence relating both to the monument and
the landscape in which it was constructed.
As well as being associated with the other bowl barrows in the round barrow
cemetery, numerous other burial monuments of the same date also survive in the
area. Such evidence gives an indication of the intensity of occupation and
the nature of social organisation present in the area during the Bronze Age
period.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Grinsell, L, 'Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeology and Natural Hist Soc' in Somerset Barrows Part II, , Vol. Vol 115, (1971), p. 114
Tratman, E K, 'University of Bristol Speleological Society' in Barrow Catalogue, ()
Tratman, E K, 'Proceedings of the Univ of Bristol Speleological Society' in Fieldwork, , Vol. Vol 2(3), (1925), p. 284

Source: Historic England

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