Details

The monument includes two bowl barrows forming part of a wider round barrow
cemetery. The barrows are aligned broadly NW-SE and are situated 260m north
of Chalk Hill Cottage on Cow Common, a gently sloping plateau with views to
the south and east, in the area of the Cotswold Hills.
The northern barrow has a mound 20m in diameter and c.0.25m high. This is
surrounded by a ditch from which material was quarried during the construction
of the monument. This has become infilled over the years, but survives as a
buried feature c.2m wide.
The southern barrow has a mound 21m in diameter and c.0.5m high. This mound is
also surrounded by a buried ditch. Both mounds are visible on the ground as
dense concentrations of stone.
Part of a Bronze Age blade was found in the area of this barrow in 1975, and
the area over and around these barrows has since been found to contain
quantities of worked flint flakes and a piece of Bronze Age pottery.

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 two bowl barrows 260m north of Chalk Hill Cottage survive comparatively
well despite reduction in their height by cultivation, and they will contain
archaeological and environmental evidence relating to the cemetery and the
landscape in which it was constructed.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
O`Neil, H E, Grinsell, L V, 'Proc of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Arch Soc' in Gloucestershire Barrows, (1960), 132
O`Neil, H E, Grinsell, L V, 'Proc of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Arch Soc' in Gloucestershire Barrows, (1960), 132

Source: Historic England