Details

The monument includes a pair of bowl barrows aligned ENE-WSW, and situated
near the top of a clay hill which overlooks the north Kent coast.
The north easterly barrow has a circular mound 16m in diameter and survives
to a height of around 1m. It has a pronounced central hollow indicating
partial excavation at some time in the past. Surrounding the mound is a ditch
from which material used to construct the barrow was excavated. This has
become partially infilled over the years, but survives as a depression up to
0.4m deep and c.4m wide.
Around 28m to the south west is a further barrow which has a subcircular mound
measuring 17.5m in diameter and 0.3m high. This is surrounded by an infilled
ditch which survives as a buried feature c.4m wide.

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 disturbance by tree roots and partial excavation, the pair of bowl
barrows in Clowes Wood survive comparatively well and will contain
archaeological remains and environmental evidence relating to the monument and
the landscape in which it was constructed. This type of funerary monument
rarely survives in the clay areas of south eastern England.

Source: Historic England