Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow set below the crest of a north-facing
slope in an area of undulating chalk downland and with extensive views of the
Wylye Valley to the north and east. The barrow appears as a conical mound 25m
in diameter and stands to a height of c.3m. Partial excavation of the site by
Cunnington in the 19th century produced a cremation burial contemporary with
construction of the monument as well as later intrusive burials. Although no
longer visible at ground level a ditch, from which material was quarried
during construction of the monument, surrounds the mound. This has become
infilled over the years but survives as a buried feature c.3m 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 partial excavation of the barrow mound by Cunnington in the 19th
century, the Boyton Field Barn monument survives well and has potential for
the recovery of archaeological evidence and environmental remains relating to
the period in which the monument was constructed.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
'Archaeologia' in Barrows opened in the Manors of Corton, Boyton and Sherrington, , Vol. 15, (1805), 340

Source: Historic England