Details

The monument includes two bowl barrows aligned north west to south east,
located just below the crest of a hill in the Cotswolds, 610m north east of
Slade Barn Farm. The northern barrow has a mound which measures about 25m in
diameter and about 0.07m high, while the southern barrow mound is about 27m in
diameter and 0.05m high. Each mound is surrounded by a ditch from which
material was excavated during the construction of the barrows. These ditches
are no longer visible at ground level, having become infilled over the years,
but survive as buried features about 2m wide.

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 by cultivation, the two bowl barrows known as Hawling
Downs round barrows, 610m north east of Slade Barn Farm survive reasonably
well and lie within an area of significant prehistoric activity with a number
of round barrows within 2km in all directions. The barrow mounds will contain
evidence for primary and secondary burials, along with grave goods, which will
provide information about prehistoric funerary practices and about the size of
the local community at that time. The barrow mounds will also preserve
environmental information in the buried original ground surface, predating the
construction of the barrows and giving an insight into the landscape in which
the monument was set. The mounds and their surrounding ditches will contain
environmental evidence in the form of organic remains, which will relate both
to the barrows and the wider landscape. In addition the area between the
mounds will also contain information in the form of satellite burials, grave
goods and other artefacts which will provide further insights into prehistoric
burial rituals.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
O`Neil, H E, Grinsell, L V, 'Proc of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Arch Soc' in Gloucestershire Barrows, , Vol. LXXIX, (1960), 118

Source: Historic England