Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow situated on the crest of Bourton Hill, on
the edge of a steep, east facing, slope. The monument is bisected,
north-south, by a road and is cut on the south west side by a farm track. It
has a mound 32m in diameter, east-west. East of the road the mound shows as
pronounced rise in the grass verge with north-south dimensions of 20m and
reaches a maximum height of 0.9m in the adjacent woodland. West of the road
it reaches a maximum height of 0.5m and has, presumably, been ploughed in the
past. Although no trace of the ditch surrounding the mound can be seen on the
surface, it will survive as a buried feature 3m wide. The monument lies on
the boundary line between two parishes and is referred to as Winesbeorg, or
Wins barrow, in a Saxon charter thought to date from AD 779.
All road surfaces and make-up, field boundaries and gates and the telegraph
pole are excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath these
features 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 damage to parts of the monument caused by road building, the bowl
barrow 160m south east of Bourton Hill Farm will contain archaeological
remains providing information about Bronze Age beliefs, economy and
environment.

Source: Historic England