Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow forming part of a wider dispersed round
barrow cemetery situated on an east-west ridge in a valley with views to the
north over the town of Corfe Castle and to the south to the Purbeck Hills.
The barrow mound measures 22.3m in diameter and is 1.5m high. Surrounding the
mound is a ditch from which material was quarried during its construction.
This has become infilled over the years and can no longer be seen at ground
level. It does, however, survive as a buried feature c.4m wide.
A slight depression in the top of the barrow mound may be the result of an
unrecorded antiquarian excavation.

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

Round barrow cemeteries date to the Bronze Age (c.2000-700 BC). They comprise
closely-spaced groups of up to 30 round barrows - rubble or earthen mounds
covering single or multiple burials. Most cemeteries developed over a
considerable period of time, often many centuries, and in some cases acted as
a focus for burials as late as the early medieval period. They exhibit
considerable diversity of burial rite, plan and form, frequently including
several different types of round barrow, occasionally associated with earlier
long barrows. Where large scale investigation has been undertaken around them,
contemporary or later "flat" burials between the barrow mounds have often been
revealed. Round barrow cemeteries occur across most of lowland Britain, with a
marked concentration in Wessex. In some cases, they are clustered around other
important contemporary monuments such as henges. Often occupying prominent
locations, they are a major historic element in the modern landscape, whilst
their diversity and their longevity as a monument type provide important
information on the variety of beliefs and social organisation amongst early
prehistoric communities. They are particularly representative of their period
and a substantial proportion of surviving or partly-surviving examples are
considered worthy of protection.

Despite the possibility of partial excavation, the bowl barrow on Corfe Common
survives well and will contain archaeological remains and environmental
evidence relating to the cemetery and the landscape in which it was
constructed. This barrow is one of a number which survive in the area of
the Purbeck Hills.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, , County of Dorset , (1970), 443

Source: Historic England