Details

The monument includes a Bronze Age bowl barrow on a north facing spur of
Blagdon Hill, within the Martin Down National Nature Reserve.
The barrow has a mound c.10m in diameter and up to 1.2m high. Surrounding the
mound is a ditch from which material was quarried during the construction of
the monument. This has largely become infilled over the years but survives as
a depression c.2.25m wide and 0.3m deep at the south and west sides of the
barrow; elsewhere it survives as a buried feature.
A large depression in the barrow mound marks the probable site of antiquarian
excavation, of which there are no known records.

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.

The bowl barrow 210m north east of the junction of Grim's Ditch and Bokerley
Dyke on Blagdon Hill survives well as one of the numerous Bronze Age monuments
constructed on Martin Down. These have recently been the subject of a detailed
survey by the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England. Despite
evidence of antiquarian excavation the barrow and quarry ditch will contain
archaeological and environmental information relating to its construction and
use.

Source: Historic England