Details

The monument includes a bell barrow situated on the west facing escarpment of
Moneybury Hill. The barrow mound survives as a well defined roughly circular
mound 25m in diameter and stands up to 3m high on its west side and 2m high on
its east. The top of the mound has been disturbed at some time in the distant
past so that it is now concave to a depth of 0.4m. Surrounding the central
mound is a sloping berm or platform 2.5m wide which separates the edge of the
mound from the ditch such a berm is characteristic of this class of monument.
A surrounding ditch, from which the material was quarried to construct the
mound, survives as an earthwork around the north and south sides only where it
averages 4m wide and 0.3m deep; elsewhere it is buried and overlain by modern
trackways but survives as a buried feature of similar width.

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

Bell barrows, the most visually impressive form of round barrow, are funerary
monuments dating to the Early and Middle Bronze Age, with most examples
belonging to the period 1500-1100 BC. They occur either in isolation or in
round barrow cemeteries and were constructed as single or multiple mounds
covering burials, often in pits, and surrounded by an enclosure ditch. The
burials are frequently accompanied by weapons, personal ornaments and pottery
and appear to be those of aristocratic individuals, usually men. Bell barrows
(particularly multiple barrows) are rare nationally, with less than 250 known
examples, most of which are in Wessex. Their richness in terms of grave goods
provides evidence for chronological and cultural links amongst early
prehistoric communities over most of southern and eastern England as well as
providing an insight into their beliefs and social organisation. As a
particularly rare form of round barrow, all identified bell barrows would
normally be considered to be of national importance.

Despite some disturbance to the central area of the barrow mound, most of the
Moneybury bell barrow survives intact. There is also potential for the
recovery of environmental material, relating to the landscape in which the
monument was constructed, from both the old land surface sealed beneath the
mound and from the ditch fill.

Source: Historic England