Details

The monument includes two bowl barrows, aligned north-south, located just
below the crest of an east-facing hill in the Cotswolds. The northern barrow
has a mound which measures 18m in diameter and is 1m high, while the southern
barrow has a mound 24m in diameter and 1.2m 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 2m and 3m wide respectively.
One or both of the barrows is believed to have been partially excavated by a
Mr Lewis during the 1930s, although there is no documentary record of the
work.

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 two bowl barrows known as Climperwell round barrows survive well, despite
some disturbance in the past. The 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 monuments
were set. The mounds and their surrounding ditches will also contain
environmental evidence in the form of organic remains, which will relate both
to the barrows and the wider landscape. In addition the ground between the
mounds will contain evidence for satellite burials, grave goods and other
artefacts which will also relate to the material contained within the two
mounds.

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), 110

Source: Historic England