Details

The monument includes the earthwork and buried remains of a Bronze Age bowl
barrow situated on level ground immediately to the south of the main
road that runs through Welshampton. From this location there are extensive
views of the surrounding countryside.
The barrow mound, which is of earthen construction, is about 20m in diameter
and survives to a height of 2.2m. Although no longer visible at ground level,
a ditch from which material was quarried during the construction of the
barrow, surrounds the mound. This has become infilled over the years but
survives as a buried feature approximately 3m wide.
A number of features are excluded from the scheduling these are; an
outbuilding to the south of the house at Old Shop Farm and associated yard
surfaces and garden features; all modern field and enclosure boundaries that
surround the monument; the telegraph pole and the base fixment for the
supporting cable, and the pavement that runs alongside the monument next to
the main road; the ground beneath all these features is, however, 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.

The bowl barrow at Old Shop Farm is a particularly well-preserved example of
this class of monument. The barrow mound will retain evidence for its method
of construction as well as the burial or burials within it. These remains will
advance our understanding of Bronze Age society, including the ritual
practices and technical abilities of the people who constructed the barrow.
The accumulated ditch fills will preserve environmental evidence for the
activities which took place at the site during the construction of the barrow,
and its subsequent use. In addition, the buried ground surface beneath the
mound will preserve evidence of the prehistoric landscape in which the barrow
was built.

Source: Historic England