Details

This monument includes a bowl barrow situated on lowland heath overlooking
Backley Bottom. The barrow mound measures 4.5m in diameter and stands up to
0.25m high. A slight hollow in the centre of the mound suggests previous
robbing or partial excavation. Although no longer visible at ground level, a
ditch, from which material was quarried during the construction of the barrow,
surrounds the mound. This has become infilled over the years but survives as
a buried feature c.1m 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

Round barrow cemeteries date to the Bronze Age (c.2000-700 BC). 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 "flat" 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