Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow, which is within a dispersed round barrow
cemetery extending over an area of c.1.3 sq km on and immediately around
Salthouse Heath. The barrow is situated c.140m from the boundary between the
parishes of Cley next the Sea and Salthouse to the north and east of it, and
is visible as an earthen mound standing to a height of c.1.1m and covering a
circular area c.27m in diameter. The mound is thought to be surrounded by a
ditch c.3m wide, from which earth was dug and used in the construction of the
barrow. This ditch has become infilled and is no longer visible on the ground
surface, but will survive as a buried feature. The estimated overall diameter
of the barrow is therefore 33m.

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 bowl barrow 270m north east of Swan Lodge survives well and will retain
archaeological information concerning its construction and the manner and
duration of its use. Evidence for the local environment prior to and during
that time is likely to be preserved, also, in soils buried beneath the mound
and in the fill of the ditch. The barrow is a component of the largest round
barrow cemetery in Norfolk and has additional interest in that context.
Limited investigations of some of the other barrows in the group have shown
that the cemetery was in use over several centuries, and includes different
types of round barrow and a considerable diversity in the forms and rites of
burial. The evidence contained in the barrows as a group is of wider
significance for the study of the character and development of the prehistoric
population of the area.

Source: Historic England