Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow on a ridge top position in south east
Somerset. The land falls away sharply on the west side but more gently
elsewhere.
The barrow has a mound which measures c.16m in diameter and is c.3m high when
seen from the west side and c.1.5m high on the north side. Surrounding the
mound is a ditch from which material was quarried during its construction.
This can no longer be seen at ground level having become infilled over the
years, but survives as a buried feature c.3m wide.
The top is flattened with indications of an excavation from the centre to the
east side. This may represent an antiquarian investigation.

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.

Despite possible part excavation, the bowl barrow on Charn Hill survives
well and will contain archaeological remains and environmental evidence
relating to the barrow and the landscape in which it was constructed.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
Ordinance Survey Field Officer, Ordinance Survey card ST 62 SE 10, (1975)

Source: Historic England