Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow situated on chalk downland behind the
hills of the Dorset coast.
The barrow mound measures 18m north-south and 15m east-west, and is 0.5m high.
Surrounding the mound is a ditch from which material was quarried during its
construction. This has become infilled over the years and can no longer be
seen at ground level. It does, however, survive as a buried feature c.5m
wide. The field bank and the wire fence which cross the barrow are excluded
from the scheduling but the ground beneath 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

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 being reduced in height as a result of cultivation over the years, the
bowl barrow to the west of Burngate Wood survives comparatively well and
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 which survive on the chalk and heathland between the River Frome and
the Dorset coast.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, , County of Dorset , (1970)
Other
Dorset C. C., NMR record in Dorset CC SMR,

Source: Historic England