Details

The monument includes a Bronze Age bowl barrow which lies on a high upland
ridge to the north east of Mouseberry Cross on Meshaw Moor. It forms an
outlier to a round barrow cemetery which lies to the east and is the subject
of a separate scheduling.
The monument survives as a 2.3m high oval shaped mound which measures
29.5m long from east to west and 27.7m wide from north to south. The
surrounding ditch from which material to construct the mound was derived
survives mainly as a buried feature, although traces of the ditch are evident.
To the west the ditch appears to be 2.2m wide and up to 0.1m deep, to the
north it measures up to 4m wide and 0.1m deep and to the east it measures 3.4m
wide and 0.1m deep. To the south the mound and ditch have been cut by a field
boundary's construction trench. The mound has been slightly flattened on its
northern side.

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.

The bowl barrow 35m north east of Mouseberry Cross survives comparatively well
and contains archaeological and environmental information relating to the
monument and its surrounding landscape. This barrow forms part of a wider
distribution which includes several barrows situated in this part of Devon.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
Devon County Sites and Monuments Register, SS71NE7, (1982)

Source: Historic England