Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow which comprises an earthen mound
encircled by a quarry ditch. The mound of the barrow measures 22m in diameter
and stands to a height of 1.8m above the ground level. The surrounding ditch
is no longer visible, having been infilled by soil eroded from the mound.
This barrow mound was partially excavated in 1895, at which time fragments of
prehistoric pottery and charcoal were found, but the primary burial was not
disturbed because a tree growing on the mound restricted digging activities.
The diameter of the mound and ditch together is 26m.

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 limited damage caused to the Ashenbank Wood monument by partial
excavation in 1895, the barrow is considered to retain considerable
potential because the majority of the mound, the underlying ground surface,
the burials placed on or below the ground surface and the surrounding ditch
all survive. These locations hold evidence of the nature and duration of the
use of the barrow and of the environment in which it was constructed. The
barrow is an outlier to the main concentration of such monuments in Kent and
so demonstrates the differing degree of use of burial mounds across the
region for the disposal and commemoration of the dead in the Bronze Age.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
Darvill, T, MPP Single Monument Class Descriptions - Bowl Barrows (1988), (1988)
Ref TQ66 NE,

Source: Historic England