Ancient Monuments

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Bowl barrow 400m north of the A303 on Countess Farm

A Scheduled Monument in Amesbury, Wiltshire

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Coordinates

Latitude: 51.1816 / 51°10'53"N

Longitude: -1.7889 / 1°47'20"W

OS Eastings: 414850.568978

OS Northings: 142503.734978

OS Grid: SU148425

Mapcode National: GBR 4ZW.Y9G

Mapcode Global: VHB5B.YK4K

Entry Name: Bowl barrow 400m north of the A303 on Countess Farm

Scheduled Date: 12 April 1995

Source: Historic England

Source ID: 1009138

English Heritage Legacy ID: 10414

County: Wiltshire

Civil Parish: Amesbury

Built-Up Area: Countess

Traditional County: Wiltshire

Lieutenancy Area (Ceremonial County): Wiltshire

Church of England Parish: Amesbury St Mary and St Melor

Church of England Diocese: Salisbury

Details

The monument includes a levelled bowl barrow located 400m north of the A303,
50m south west of Halfmoon Clump and is situated on a raised plateau which
lies between the River Avon and Stonehenge. The barrow mound is now difficult
to identify on the ground. However, it is visible as a circular chalk spread
on aerial photographs from which the diameter has been calculated to be c.20m.
Surrounding the mound is a ditch from which material was quarried during its
construction. This has become infilled over the years but survives as a buried
feature c.2m wide, giving the barrow an overall diameter of c.24m.

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

A small number of areas in southern England appear to have acted as foci for
ceremonial and ritual activity during the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods.
Two of the best known and earliest recognised areas are around Avebury and
Stonehenge, now jointly designated as a World Heritage Site.
The area of chalk downland which surrounds Stonehenge contains one of the
densest and most varied groups of Neolithic and Bronze Age field monuments in
Britain. Included within the area are Stonehenge itself, the Stonehenge
cursus, the Durrington Walls henge, and a variety of burial monuments, many
grouped into cemeteries.
The area has been the subject of archaeological research since the 18th
century when Stukeley recorded many of the monuments and partially excavated a
number of the burial mounds. More recently, the collection of artefacts from
the surfaces of ploughed fields has supplemented the evidence for ritual and
burial by revealing the intensity of contemporary settlement and land-use.
In view of the importance of the area, all ceremonial and sepulchral monuments
of this period which retain significant archaeological remains are identified
as nationally important. 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, normally 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 variety of burial practices. There are over
10,000 surviving bowl barrows recorded nationally and at least 320 in the
Stonehenge area. This group of monuments will provide important information
on the development of this area during the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age
periods.

Despite having been levelled by cultivation, the bowl barrow 400m north of
the A303 will contain archaeological remains and environmental evidence
relating to the monument and the landscape in which it was constructed.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other

Source: Historic England

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