Details

The monument includes a levelled bowl barrow located 200m south east of Middle
Farm situated on a broad chalk plateau which gradually declines westwards to
the valley of the River Till. Although the barrow is now difficult to identify
on the ground, partial excavation has shown that the mound is 18m in diameter
and constructed without a surrounding quarry ditch. Excavation also revealed
secondary activity around the mound including the insertion of two cremations
on the north west side and the cremation of a child beneath an inverted food
vessel and covered with a flint cairn on the north east side. These remains
are included in a 5m margin which surrounds the barrow mound.

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 being levelled by ploughing, partial excavation of the barrow 200m
south east of Middle Farm has shown that it is an unusual example of its
class, being constructed without a quarry ditch, and having secondary funerary
activity occurring around the mound.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Grinsell, LV, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume V, (1957), 190
Green, C, Rollo-Smith, S, 'Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society' in The Excavation of Eighteen Round Barrows near Shrewton, Wilts, , Vol. 50, (1984), 255-318

Source: Historic England