Details

The monument includes the remains of a substantial bowl barrow situated below
the crest of a north facing slope. The barrow mound survives as a circular
mound 30m in diameter and stands to a height of 3.4m. The whole centre of the
mound has been hollowed out and a concrete and brick Second World War
observation post has been built into the mound. This is approached by a
concrete sided entrance gulley set into the east quarter. Although no longer
visible at ground level, a ditch, from which material was quarried during the
construction of the monument, surrounds the mound. This has become infilled
over the years around the north, east and west sides of the barrow and is
overlain by a side embankment of the Old Bath Road in the south. However it
still survives as a buried feature some 3m wide.
Finds made in the barrow when the pill-box was built included fragments of
human bone and fragments of shale and Bronze Age pottery, including an intact
beaker. The WWII observation post and concrete sided entrance gulley are
excluded from the scheduling although the ground beneath is included.

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 the disturbance and partial excavation caused by the construction of
the WWII observation post, the bowl barrow 400m west of Cooks Plantation
will contain primary deposits and environmental evidence from the old land
surface sealed beneath the surviving portion of the mound. It is one of
several such barrows in this area and, as such, contributes to an
understanding of the intensity of settlement and nature of land-use occuring
in the area during the Bronze Age period.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
Card No SU 06 NE 72, NAR No.: SU 06 NE 72,

Source: Historic England