Details

The monument includes two bowl barrows set on a gentle south-east facing
slope, above the floor of a dry valley and in an area of undulating chalk
downland. The southwestern barrow survives to a height of 1.8m and has a
maximum diameter of 16m. Traces of a ditch, from which material was
quarried during the construction of the monument, can be seen to the NW and
SE of the mound. It survives to a width of 5m and an average depth of 0.5m.
Adjacent to this mound on the NE side is a second bowl barrow. This survives
to a height of 1.5m and has a diameter of c.20m. Traces of the ditch can
be seen to the NW of the mound where it survives to a maximum depth of 0.9m
and a width of c.5m. Both of the mounds were partially excavated in the
late 19th century by Canon Greenwell, a prolific excavator of barrows. Finds
included animal bones, pottery, and in the north-eastern mound a cremation
burial.

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 Stancombe Farm barrows are particularly important as they survive well
and, despite partial excavation of the site, have potential for the recovery
of environmental evidence and additional archaeological remains, especially
in the area of the ditches and on the buried ground surface.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Greenwell, Canon, 'Archaeologia' in Archaeologia (Volume 52), , Vol. 52, (1890), 59-61
Grinsell, L V, 'Berkshire Archaeological Journal' in Berkshire Archaeological Journal (Volume 40), , Vol. 40, (1936), 36
Piggott, S, 'Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society' in Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society: Volume 4, , Vol. 4, (1938), 102

Source: Historic England