Details

The monument includes a Bronze Age bowl barrow on Westwood Common, Beverley,
situated 150m north of Blackmill. It is one of a group of prehistoric funerary
earthworks surviving together on Westwood Common, which represents a sizeable
area of land in which prehistoric earthworks have survived because of the
establishment of common grazing rights in the 14th century AD.
The barrow survives as a mound 15m in diameter and up to 0.4m in height. It is
surrounded by a ditch up to 2m wide, which although infilled through the
course of time, and now no longer visible at the ground level, will survive as
a buried feature.
There is no indication that this barrow has been excavated in the past, and it
is therefore thought to survive with its burial contents intact.

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 monument is one of a closely associated group of prehistoric earthworks on
Westwood Common, which include both square and round barrows, as well as
Romano-British enclosures, linear boundary dykes and a short section of Roman
road. The group has survived as part of a rare landscape which is
characterised by features dating back as far as the Bronze Age, which has owed
its survival to the granting of common grazing rights to the local people of
Beverley in the 14th century AD.
The survival of such an extensive area of prehistoric earthworks is unusual in
this region of East Yorkshire, where arable agricultural practices have
resulted in the destruction of many earthwork remains of monuments above
ground. It offers important insights into ancient land use and territorial
divisions for social, ritual and agricultural purposes in this area, and the
development of these through time.
As the monument has not been excavated, it will still contain primary and
secondary burials, and further archaeological information relating to its
construction.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
Humberside SMR, Sites and Monuments Records Sheet, (1994)
Mackay, Rodney , (1995)

Source: Historic England