Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow, 250m west of Ferndown Upper School, one
of a dispersed group of barrows on the heathland in this area. The barrow has
a recorded diameter of 20m and survives to a height of c.1m. The mound is
surrounded by a quarry ditch from which material was excavated during its
construction. This has become infilled over the years but will survive as a
buried feature c.2m wide. The mound shows signs of disturbance, especially on
its north west side.
All fence posts 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 some disturbance to the mound, the bowl barrow 250m west of Ferndown
Upper School is a comparatively well preserved example of its class and will
contain archaeological remains providing information about Bronze Age burial
practices, economy and environment.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Historical Mounuments in the County of Dorset: Volume V, (1974), 29

Source: Historic England