Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow set below the crest of a gentle west-
facing slope in an area of undulating chalk downland. The barrow mound
survives as an earthwork 1.5m high and 17m in diameter. Although no longer
visible at ground level a ditch, from which material was quarried during the
construction of the monument, surrounds the mound. This has filled in over
the years and now survives as a buried feature c.3m 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

Bowl barrows, the most numerous form of round barrow, are funerary monuments
dating from the Late Neolithic period to the Late Bronze Age, with most
examples belonging to the period 2400-1500 BC. They were constructed as
earthen or rubble mounds, sometimes ditched, which covered single or multiple
burials. They occur either in isolation or grouped as cemeteries and often
acted as a focus for burials in later periods. Often superficially similar,
although differing widely in size, they exhibit regional variations in form
and a diversity of burial practices. There are over 10,000 surviving bowl
barrows recorded nationally (many more have already been destroyed), occurring
across most of lowland Britain. Often occupying prominent locations, they are
a major historic element in the modern landscape and their considerable
variation of form and longevity as a monument type provide important
information on the diversity of beliefs and social organisations amongst early
prehistoric communities. They are particularly representative of their period
and a substantial proportion of surviving examples are considered worthy of
protection.

The Wexcombe Down bowl barrow survives intact with no evidence of previous
excavation. It has considerable potential for the recovery of archaeological
evidence for the nature and duration of use of the monument and the
environment within which it was constructed. The significance of the monument
is enhanced by the fact that numerous other round barrows survive in the area.
Such groups of monuments give an indication of the intensity with which areas
were settled during the Bronze Age period as well as the variety of beliefs
and organisation present within society at that time. The site is also in
close proximity to a Neolithic long barrow.

Source: Historic England