Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow located on the western perimeter of
Boscombe Down airfield, 340m east of Stockport. The barrow is situated between
two security fences and it is now difficult to accurately survey having been
reduced by ploughing and more recently disturbed by construction work. The
mound was previously recorded as 12.5m in diameter and is surrounded by a
ditch, formerly visible as a soil mark on aerial photographs, from which
material was quarried during its construction. This has become infilled over
the years but will survive as a buried feature c.2m wide. The overall diameter
of the barrow is therefore calculated to be c.16.5m.
All fence posts and signs are excluded from the scheduling, although the
ground beneath these features is included.

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 being reduced by ploughing and more recently disturbed by construction
work, the bowl barrow 340m east of Stockport will contain archaeological
remains and environmental evidence relating to the monument and the landscape
in which it was contructed.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Fieldwork, (1972)

Source: Historic England