Details

The monument includes a levelled bowl barrow on an east 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 as visible earthworks.
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. The 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.14m; 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 370m 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
CUCAP 22.11.77/SZ5887 CEW 038 and 042/AP file,
NMR 27.7.76/SZ5887:2:313 and SZ5887:3:314/AP file,

Source: Historic England