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Bowl barrow 220m east of Eaglehead Copse, forming part of a Bronze Age barrow cemetery

A Scheduled Monument in Brading, Isle of Wight

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Coordinates

Latitude: 50.6857 / 50°41'8"N

Longitude: -1.1741 / 1°10'26"W

OS Eastings: 458440.309092

OS Northings: 87660.22493

OS Grid: SZ584876

Mapcode National: GBR 9D0.XN6

Mapcode Global: FRA 87F8.8F2

Entry Name: Bowl barrow 220m east of Eaglehead Copse, forming part of a Bronze Age barrow cemetery

Scheduled Date: 23 October 1995

Source: Historic England

Source ID: 1012758

English Heritage Legacy ID: 22044

County: Isle of Wight

Civil Parish: Brading

Traditional County: Hampshire

Lieutenancy Area (Ceremonial County): Isle of Wight

Church of England Parish: Brading St Mary the Virgin

Church of England Diocese: Portsmouth

Details

The monument includes a levelled bowl barrow on a north facing slope just
below the crest of the hill. The barrow forms part of a wider cemetery on
Middle West Down which includes at least 17 barrows, five of which can be
identified at ground level.
This barrow no longer has a recognisable mound and is difficult to identify on
the ground, but survives as a circular ditch identified from aerial
photographs. This ditch surrounded the mound and was the source from which
material was excavated during its construction. The area of the mound has a
diameter of c.16m; the surrounding ditch is c.2m 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.

Despite having been levelled, the bowl barrow 220m east of Eaglehead Copse is
integral to the Middle West Down cemetery and will contain archaeological
remains and environmental evidence relating to the cemetery and the landscape
in which it was constructed. The old ground surface and the surrounding quarry
ditch, from which material was quarried during construction of the monument,
will survive as buried features.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
DJT 1979/SZ5887-NN-5, 12/AP file,
NMR 1976/SZ5887-NN-14, 18/AP file,

Source: Historic England

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