Details

The monument includes three bowl barrows, aligned broadly north west-south
east, situated on the crest of a north east facing slope of the Bere valley.
The barrows form part of a wider group of 11 which, together, form a round
barrow cemetery on Roke Down.
The barrows each have a mound composed of earth, flint and chalk, with maximum
dimensions of between 20m-22m in diameter and 0.5m in height. Each mound is
surrounded by a ditch from which material was quarried during the construction
of the monument. The ditches have become infilled over the years, but each
will survive as a buried feature about 2m wide.
Excluded from the scheduling are all fence posts, although the ground beneath
them 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

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.

Bowl barrows are the most numerous form of round barrow, with over 10,000
examples recorded nationally. They were constructed as earthen or rubble
mounds, each covering single or multiple burials.
Despite some reduction by ploughing, the three bowl barrows 230m south west of
Haywards Farm survive comparatively well and will 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), 436

Source: Historic England