Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow 630m north east of St Peter's Church, at
the eastern end of Knowle Hill, a chalk ridge of the Isle of Purbeck,
overlooking Poole Harbour to the north east. The bowl barrow forms part of a
group of three which occur at the eastern end of Knowle Hill. The barrow has a
mound composed of earth, flint and chalk, with a maximum diameter of 14m and a
maximum height of c.1.2m. This is surrounded by a ditch from which material
was quarried during the construction of the monument. The ditch is visible as
an earthwork 4.5m wide and c.0.6m deep.
Part excavations conducted by J H Austen in 1861 identified a cremation burial
within a cist in association with burnt material and a perforated whetstone.
The finds from the excavation are now stored at the Dorset County Museum.

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 on Knowle Hill, 630m north east of St Peter's Church, survives
well and is known from part excavations 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

Source: Historic England