Details

This monument includes a bowl barrow situated on lowland heath overlooking
Holbury village. The barrow mound measures 25m in diameter and stands up to
2.3m high. The centre of the mound has many shallow hollows which suggest
robbing or partial early excavation. Although no longer visible at ground
level, the ditch, from which material was quarried during the construction of
the monument, surrounds the barrow mound. This has become infilled over the
years but survives as a buried feature 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.

The Beaulieu Heath round barrow cemetery contains a variety of barrow types.
Although some of the barrow mounds have been reduced in size or partially
disturbed, all of 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 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
Other
Darvill, T.C., Monument Class Description - Round Barrow Cemeteries, 1988,

Source: Historic England