Details

This monument includes a bowl barrow forming part of a round barrow cemetery
situated on lowland heath overlooking Backley Bottom. The barrow mound
measures 17.5m in diameter and stands up to 2m high. A large hollow in the
mound centre suggests previous robbing or an early excavation. Surrounding
the barrow mound is a ditch from which material was quarried during the
construction of the monument. This has become partly infilled over the years
but survives as an earthwork 2.5m wide and 0.5m deep around the south-eastern
part of the barrow and as a buried feature elsewhere.

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 (2000 - 700bc). 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 "f1at" 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.

The Bratley Plain round barrow cemetery contains a significantly large number
of small undisturbed barrows and lies within the New Forest. The survival of
so many small barrows within a cemetery is a particularly uncommon phenomenon
in southern England. Although some of the larger mounds have been partially
disturbed, all the barrows retain undisturbed remains and the cemetery as a
whole has considerable archaeological potential. The New Forest region is
known to have been important in terms of lowland Bronze Age occupation and a
considerable amount of archaeological evidence has survived because of a lack
of agricultural activity, the result of later climatic deterioration,
development of heath and the establishment of a Royal Forest.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Grinsell, L V, 'Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club' in Hampshire Barrows, , Vol. 14, (1938), 360

Source: Historic England