Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow just below the crest of a south-facing
hillside in the Cotswolds.
The barrow has a mound which measures 16m east-west, 13m north-south and is
about 2m high. Surrounding the mound is a ditch from which material was
excavated during the construction of the barrow. This can no longer be seen at
ground level, but survives as a buried feature about 3m wide. The top of the
barrow is flattened, but there are no depressions which might indicate
unrecorded excavation in the past.
The drystone wall and the post and wire fence which lie to the north of the
barrow are excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath these is
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.

Despite the top of the mound being flattened, the Syreford Farm bowl barrow,
450m south west of Oxpens survives well and will contain archaeological
information and environmental evidence relating to the barrow and the
landscape in which it was constructed.

Source: Historic England