Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow located on a scarp edge 430m northwest of
King Down Farm. It is visible as a barrow mound 20m in diameter and c.2m high
at its highest point. A central hollow 5m in diameter and c.1.25m deep may
mark the site of previous excavation or stone quarrying. Although no longer
visible at ground level a ditch, from which material was quarried during the
construction of the monument, surrounds the barrow 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.

The bowl barrow 430m northwest of King Down Farm survives comparatively well
and, despite an area of localised disturbance caused by either previous
excavation or stone quarrying, retains archaeological and environmental
evidence relating both to the monument and the landscape in which it was
constructed.
The monument survives in an area which contains a concentration of
contemporary burial monuments, thus giving an indication of the nature and
scale of human occupation during the Bronze Age period.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Grinsell, L, 'Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeology and Natural Hist Soc' in Somerset Barrows Part II, , Vol. Vol 115, (1971), 91, 126
Tratman, E K, 'Proceedings of the Univ of Bristol Speleological Society' in Fieldwork, , Vol. Vol 2(3), (1925), 284

Source: Historic England