Details

The monument includes a saucer barrow situated on a chalk spur which forms
part of the Sussex Downs. The barrow has a low circular mound around 18m in
diameter and 0.5m high with a large central hollow, indicating antiquarian
excavation during the 18th or early 19th centuries. The mound is surrounded by
a shallow ditch from which material used to construct the barrow was
excavated. The ditch has become partly infilled over the years but survives as
a depression around 2.5m wide and 0.3m deep. The ditch is in turn encircled by
a low bank about 4m wide and 0.2m high. A platform barrow around 80m to the
north is the subject of a separate scheduling.

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

Saucer barrows are funerary monuments of the Early Bronze Age, most examples
dating to between 1800 and l200 BC. They occur either in isolation or in
barrow cemeteries (closely-spaced groups of round barrows). They were
constructed as a circular area of level ground defined by a bank and internal
ditch and largely occupied by a single low, squat mound covering one or more
burials, usually in a pit. The burials, either inhumations or cremations, are
sometimes accompanied by pottery vessels, tools and personal ornaments. Saucer
barrows are one of the rarest recognised forms of round barrow, with about 60
known examples nationally, most of which are in Wessex. The presence of grave
goods within the barrows provides important evidence for chronological and
cultural links amongst prehistoric communities over a wide area of southern
England as well as providing an insight into their beliefs and social
organisation. As a rare and fragile form of round barrow, all identified
saucer barrows would normally be considered to be of national importance.

The saucer barrow 330m north east of The Mill House survives well, despite
some disturbance by an unrecorded antiquarian excavation, and will contain
archaeological remains and environmental evidence relating to the monument and
the landscape in which it was constructed. Its close association with a
roughly contemporary platform barrow will provide additional evidence for
ceremonial and burial practices during the later prehistoric period.

Source: Historic England