Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow located on a slight ridge on the western
side of the Breckland region near the fen edge and c.1200m north of the Little
Ouse River. The barrow is visible as an earthen mound encircled by a ditch.
The mound stands to a height of c.2.4m and covers a circular area c.28m in
diameter, and the surrounding ditch, which has become partly infilled, is
marked by hollows c.3.5m wide and c.0.3m deep in the ground surface around the
foot of the mound on the north east and south west sides. There is a slight
cruciform depression in the top of the mound and low banks of earth tailing
from the foot of it across the ditch on the north west and south east sides.
These features are probably the result of an antiquarian excavation by Lord
Rosehill, who is thought to have investigated this and six other barrows in
the Weeting area in 1871.

A service pole adjacent to the mound is excluded from the scheduling, although
the ground beneath it 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.

Pepper Hill bowl barrow survives well, and although there is evidence that it
has been the subject of an antiquarian investigation, the disturbance is
limited in relation to the monument as a whole. The mound and deposits beneath
it and in the fill of the ditch will retain archaeological information
relating to the construction of the barrow, the manner and duration of its use
and the local environment at that time, and evidence for earlier land use is
likely to be preserved in soils buried beneath the mound. The barrow is one of
several which survive in the vicinity of the prehistoric flint mines of Grimes
Graves and which, as a group, are of interest for the study of the general
character and development of prehistoric settlement in this area of the
Breckland region.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
5616: Pepper Hill, Weeting with Broomhill,

Source: Historic England