Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow situated on the south western side of
Creech Barrow hill in the Isle of Purbeck, overlooking the Purbeck Hills to
the south, Poole Harbour to the east and heathland to the north west.

The barrow has a mound composed of earth, sand and turf with a maximum
diameter of 25m and a maximum height of c.2m. The mound now has a trench 1m
wide and c.0.5m deep running from north west to south east, which delineates
the boundary between the parishes of Church Knowle and Steeple. On the
north eastern side of the mound is an excavation hollow with dimensions of
6m by 4m and c.1.2m in depth. This may mark the excavations conducted by J H
Austen during the 1850s, when the remains of three primary inhumations and
two secondary inhumations were identified under a flint cairn. An old field
bank 1m wide and c.0.5m high encroaches on the northern side of the barrow
mound.

The mound is surrounded by a ditch from which material was quarried during the
construction of the monument. The ditch was recorded as an earthwork 2.5m wide
and c.0.3m deep on the south eastern side of the barrow in the 1950s. The
ditch is no longer visible as it has become infilled, but it will survive as a
buried feature 2.5m 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.

Despite some encroachment by a field boundary, the bowl barrow on Creech
Barrow hill survives comparatively well and is known from part excavation
to contain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to the monument
and the landscape in which it was constructed.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset: Volume I, (1970), 442
Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset: Volume I, (1970), 442
Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset: Volume I, (1970), 442
Other
Mention excavation hollow in NE,
Mention field bank to the north,

Source: Historic England