Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow situated on the northern edge of
Brenscombe Heath, a plateau overlooking Poole Harbour to the north east.
The barrow has a mound composed of sand, earth and turf with maximum
dimensions of 10m in diameter and approximately 0.9m in height. There is a
trench in the top of the mound, which may be the result of partial excavation
or military activity. The mound is surrounded by a ditch from which material
was quarried during its construction. This has become infilled over the years,
but will survive as a buried feature approximately 1.5m 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 limited disturbance, the bowl barrow on Brenscombe Heath 470m
west of Burnbrake Cottage survives comparatively well and will contain
archaeological and environmental evidence relating to the monument and the
landscape in which it was constructed.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset: Volume I, (1970), 444
Grinsell, L V, 'Procs Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Soc.' in Dorset Barrows, (1959), 102

Source: Historic England