Details

This monument includes a fancy barrow situated on the brow of a west facing
slope overlooking Three Beech Bottom. The barrow mound measures 10m in
diameter and stands up to 1.25m high. A slight hollow in the centre of the
mound indicates the location of a partial excavation carried out in 1792 by R.
Warner who found burnt earth and charcoal. Surrounding the mound is a level
platform, surviving to an average width of 3.5m, a ditch from which material
was quarried during the construction of the barrow and an outer bank. The
ditch has become partly infilled over the years, but survives as a slight
earthwork 1.9m wide and 0.8m deep; the bank is 5.5m wide and 0.6m high. The
overall diameter of this barrow is 31.8m.

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

Saucer barrows are funerary monuments of the Early Bronze Age, most examples
dating to between 1800 and l200 BC. They occur either in isolation or in
barrow cemeteries (closely-spaced groups of round barrows). They were
constructed as a circular area of level ground defined by a bank and internal
ditch and largely occupied by a single low, squat mound covering one or more
burials, usually in a pit. The burials, either inhumations or cremations, are
sometimes accompanied by pottery vessels, tools and personal ornaments. Saucer
barrows are one of the rarest recognised forms of round barrow, with about 60
known examples nationally, most of which are in Wessex. The presence of grave
goods within the barrows provides important evidence for chronological and
cultural links amongst prehistoric communities over a wide area of southern
England as well as providing an insight into their beliefs and social
organisation. As a rare and fragile form of round barrow, all identified
saucer barrows would normally be considered to be of national importance.

Despite evidence for partial excavation, the fancy barrow on Setley Plain
survives in a particularly fine condition within the New Forest, an area known
to have been important in terms of lowland Bronze Age occupation. A
considerable amount of archaeological evidence has survived in this area
because of a lack of agricultural activity, the result of later climatic
deterioration, development of heath and the establishment of a Royal Forest.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Warner, R, Topographical Remarks Relating to the SW Parts of Hampshire, (1793), 70-9
Other
Hampshire County Planning Department, SZ29NE22,

Source: Historic England