Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow located on a scarp edge 70m northeast of
King Down Farm. It is visible as a mound 18m in diameter and c.0.5m high when
viewed from the south. The barrow mound has been spread by cultivation.
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.3.7m 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 70m northeast of King Down Farm survives comparatively well
and, despite spreading of the barrow mound by cultivation, 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 supports 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), p. 91
Tratman, E K, 'University of Bristol Speleological Society' in Barrow Catalogue, ()
Tratman, E K, 'Proceedings of the Univ of Bristol Speleological Society' in Fieldwork, , Vol. Vol 2(3), (1925), p. 284

Source: Historic England