Details

This monument includes a bowl barrow and a length of curved bank situated on
lowland heath and forming part of Black Bush Plain round barrow cemetery. The
barrow mound measures 5m in diameter and stands up to 0.3m high. Surrounding
the mound is a ditch from which material was quarried during the construction
of the barrow. This has become partly infilled over the years but survives
as a slight earthwork 1m wide and 0.05m deep. A curved bank believed to be
contemporary with the barrow mound and measuring 16m long, 1.3m wide and 0.1m
high runs westwards from the south-western edge of the mound. Although only
partly visible as an earthwork, the bank is believed to be circular, the
remainder surviving as a levelled feature. An accompanying ditch may survive
as a buried feature, possibly on the outside of the bank. It has an overall
diameter of 12m and may represent the site of a fancy barrow or some form of
related funerary enclosure.

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 Black Bush Plain round barrow cemetery contains a significantly large
number of small undisturbed barrows. The survival of so many small barrows
within a cemetery is particularly uncommon in southern England. Although part
of the enclosure at this monument has been disturbed, it is an extremely rare
feature and, combined with the barrow, 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