Details

The monument includes a disc barrow of Bronze Age date situated on low lying
ground at the north eastern end of Petersfield Heath Common. It forms part of
a round barrow cemetery situated east of Heath Pond, known as the Petersfield
Heath Group. Now comprising a total of 21 barrows, a first edition Ordnance
Survey map dated to 1810 indicates that this round barrow cemetery was
formerly more extensive, including further barrows situated to the north and
east, now destroyed by modern housing.
The barrow includes two mounds positioned on a low circular platform,
approximately 29m in diameter, surrounded, unusually, by a bank and shallow
outer ditch. The smaller of the two mounds, approximately 0.35m high and 14m
in diameter, stands roughly at the centre of the central platform. The higher
mound, about 0.9m high and 12m in diameter, overlaps it to the west. Both
mounds are roughly circular in shape. The prominent bank is approximately 6m
wide and stands 0.4m high above the interior platform and 0.6m above the outer
ditch. The ditch is partly infilled and is now only apparent to the south and
west as a shallow depression, approximately 2m wide and 0.1m deep.

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.

Disc barrows, the most fragile type of round barrow, date mostly to the period
1400-1200BC, the Early Bronze Age. They are rare nationally with about 250
known examples, most of which are in Wessex.
The disc barrow on Petersfield Heath Common 310m east of the Club House
survives particularly well despite some later disturbance caused by the modern
use of the area as a public recreation ground. It is also an unusual example
of its type, having its ditch outside the bank rather than inside. This and
the other barrows in the group can be expected to retain important
archaeological remains and environmental evidence relating to the cemetery and
the environment in which it was constructed.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Grinsell, L V, 'Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club' in Hampshire Barrows, , Vol. 14, (1939)

Source: Historic England