Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow within Seven Hills barrow cemetery, and is
situated to the rear of a cottage garden, at the south-western end of
Bucklesham Wood. The barrow is visible as an irregular earthen mound, standing
to a height of 2m, and covering an area measuring c.20m north-east to south-
west by 16m south-east to north-west. The original diameter of the mound was
between 20m and 25m, but this was reduced early in the 20th century, when part
of the north-western side of the barrow was levelled and the centre was
hollowed out from the south-western side. The ground within this hollow, which
was formerly roofed as a shed, is now open and grassed and is included in the
scheduling, as is the ground formerly covered by the north-western edge of the
mound. A shed standing partly on the latter area is excluded from the
scheduling, although the ground beneath this feature is included.

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 barrow at Seven Hills Cottages is a component of one of the best examples
of a round barrow cemetery in Suffolk and, as such, has importance in relation
to the cemetery as a whole. Most barrow 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
different types of round barrow and, wherever large scale investigation beyond
barrows has been undertaken, revealing contemporary or later `flat' burials
beyond the barrow mounds. The barrow retains important archaeological
information in deposits left undisturbed after the removal of parts of the
mound, and evidence concerning the construction of the barrow, the manner and
duration of its use, and also the local environment at that time, will be
preserved in the barrow mound and in the soils buried beneath it. Seven Hills
cemetery is part of a larger group of round barrows and circular ditched
enclosures which extend in a line to the south-east, over a distance of 3km,
to Levington Heath. The former parish boundary between Nacton, to the south,
and Bucklesham and Foxhall, to the north, follows the same line, showing a
relationship which is of particular interest for the study of the prehistoric
and medieval landscape history of the area.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
The Victoria History of the County of Suffolk: Volume I, (1911)
Wodderspoon, J, Memorials of Ipswich, (1850)
Other
No. 8417, Morley, C, East Anglian Miscellany, (1931)
Suffolk SMR ACQ30, 31,

Source: Historic England