Details

This monument includes a bowl barrow situated on grassland overlooking
Brockenhurst village. The barrow mound measures 15m in diameter and stands up
to 1.1m high. A number of small hollows in the top of the mound suggest
previous partial excavation. Surrounding the mound is a ditch from which
material was quarried during the construction of the monument. This has
become partly infilled over the years but survives as a slight earthwork 1.4m
wide and 0.05m deep. On the southern external edge of this ditch is a bank
measuring 1.5m wide and 0.1m high.

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 partial excavation and recent disturbance caused by animal burrowing
the bowl barrow 320m west of Ober House survives comparatively well in 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

Other
Darvill, T, Monument Class Description - Bowl barrows, 1988,
Hampshire County Planning Department, SU20SE22,

Source: Historic England