Details

The monument includes the visible and buried remains of four Bronze Age bowl
barrows located within an arable field to the north of the junction of the A11
and the A14 (Newmarket bypass). The barrows are arranged in a broadly east-
west alignment across the chalk escarpment to the north of Newmarket,
separated by intervals of between 70m and 100m and therefore protected by four
separate constraint areas.
All four barrows remain unexcavated, although ploughing has reduced the mounds
to low earthworks in the otherwise level field. The westernmost barrow lies
approximately half way between the compound of the water pumping station (next
to the road junction) and a cluster of barns to the north west, and is
straddled by the farm track which links the two. This survives as a low
circular mound c.22m in diameter and 0.5m high, principally visible as a
slight rise in the surface of the track. The second barrow lies some 70m to
the ESE (c.70m due north of the pumping station compound), and measures 34m in
diameter and c.0.4m high. The third barrow lies close to the south western
field boundary and the verge of the A11 (some 150m to the north east of the
pumping station), and measures 45m in diameter and 0.4m high. The fourth
barrow lies approximately 300m north east of the pumping station (100m from
its neighbour to the south west). This barrow was partly destroyed during
the construction of the new A11 in 1973, although the north western half of
the mound survives adjacent to the the field boundary, measuring 40m across
and 0.5m high.
The barrows, which were first recorded in 1923, form part of a larger cemetery
which included at least ten similar barrows spread over a distance of c.1.5km
to the south of Chippenham Park (the Chippenham barrow cemetery). To the
south and east, two barrows survive in small copses to the south of the A11 at
Hilly Plantation (SM 27179) and The Rookery (SM 27178). The furthest extant
barrow (SM 27177) lies to the south of the Ely to Bury St Edmunds railway
line, some 1.1km to the east of the road junction. This was originally part of
a group of three barrows, two of which were excavated in 1940 but were
subsequently destroyed by ploughing.
The most westerly feature of the cemetery lay c.230m south west of the pumping
station. This mound was excavated in 1973 prior to the construction of the
Newmarket bypass, and found to be natural in origin although utilised as a
barrow. Five inhumation graves and a cremation burial had been inserted into
the mound. Grave goods found in association with the largest grave included a
bronze cylinder, a jet or shale bead, and fragments from an Early Bronze Age
`beaker' pot.
The east-west alignment of the barrow cemetery, together with the positions of
further isolated barrows to the south west of Newmarket and to the north
east near Kennett and Barton Mills, broadly correlates with the course of the
Roman road between Great Chesterford and Thetford (the Icknield Way). The
barrows were clearly located to be visible from a prehistoric precursor to
this route.

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

Round barrow cemeteries date to the Bronze Age (c.2000-700 BC). They comprise
closely-spaced groups of up to 30 round barrows - rubble or earthen mounds
covering single or multiple burials. Most cemeteries developed over a
considerable period of time, often many centuries, and in some cases acted as
a focus for burials as late as the early medieval period. They exhibit
considerable diversity of burial rite, plan and form, frequently including
several different types of round barrow, occasionally associated with earlier
long barrows. Where large scale investigation has been undertaken around them,
contemporary or later "flat" burials between the barrow mounds have often been
revealed. Round barrow cemeteries occur across most of lowland Britain, with a
marked concentration in Wessex. In some cases, they are clustered around other
important contemporary monuments such as henges. Often occupying prominent
locations, they are a major historic element in the modern landscape, whilst
their diversity and their longevity as a monument type provide important
information on the variety of beliefs and social organisation amongst early
prehistoric communities. They are particularly representative of their period
and a substantial proportion of surviving or partly-surviving examples are
considered worthy of protection.

Despite being reduced by cultivation, the four bowl barrows north of the
A11/A14 junction will retain significant archaeological information. Funerary
remains will survive within mounds and in buried features beneath them,
illustrating the function of the monuments and the beliefs of the community
which built them. The excavation of other barrows towards the eastern and
western limits of the cemetery has demonstrated complex sequences of
construction, and it is therefore considered likely that structural evidence,
related to their development, will survive in each of these examples.
Furthermore, the old land surface buried beneath the mounds will contain
environmental evidence illustrating the appearance of the landscape in which
the barrows were set.
The associations between these barrows and the others which form both the
cemetery and the wider alignment are highly significant, providing valuable
insights into the development of ritual practices, the position of the
prehistoric trackway across the chalk escarpment and the pattern of
prehistoric settlement in the region.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Bray, S, Chippenham Park and Fen River Pipeline Archaeological Assessment, (1991)
Bray, S, Chippenham Park and Fen River Pipeline Archaeological Assessment, (1991)
Fox, C, Archaeology of the Cambridge Region, (1923)
Leaf, C S, 'PCAS' in Further Excavations in Bronze Age Barrows at Chippenham, Cambs, , Vol. 39, (1940), 30-34
Leaf, C S, 'PCAS' in Further Excavations in Bronze Age Barrows at Chippenham, Cambs, , Vol. 39, (1940), 30-35
Leaf, C S, 'PCAS' in Further Excavations in Bronze Age Barrows at Chippenham, Cambs, , Vol. 39, (1940), 30-34
Leaf, C S, 'PCAS' in Further Excavations in Bronze Age Barrows at Chippenham, Cambs, , Vol. 39, (1940), 30-34
Martin, E A, 'PCAS' in Excavation Of Two Tumuli On Waterhall Farm, Chippenham, Cambs, (1977), 1-21
Martin, E A, 'PCAS' in Excavation Of Two Tumuli On Waterhall Farm, Chippenham, Cambs, (1977), 1-21
Other
04424 The Rookery, (1985)
04424: The Rookery, (1985)
04425: Hilly Plantation, (1985)
04425: Hilly Plantation, (1985)
4424: The Rookery, (1985)
4425: Hilly Plantation, (1985)
Generic No. - St Simon Stud barrows, 10325, (1985)
Generic No.- St Simon Stud barrows, 10325, (1985)
Generic No.- St Simon Stud barrows, 10325, (1985)
Generic number for Chippenham barrows, 07448: Chippenham Barrows, (1992)
Generic number for Chippenham barrows, 07448: Chippenham Barrows, (1992)
Generic number for Chippenham barrows, 07448: Chippenham Barrows, (1992)
Title: Cambridge, Newmarket and Surrounding Area
Source Date: 1986
Author:
Publisher:
Surveyor:
Landranger 154 (1:50,000)
Title: Cambridge, Newmarket and Surrounding Area
Source Date: 1986
Author:
Publisher:
Surveyor:
Landranger 154 (1:50,000)
Title: Cambridge, Newmarket and Surrounding Area
Source Date: 1986
Author:
Publisher:
Surveyor:
Landranger 154 (1:50,000)

Source: Historic England