Details

The monument includes the buried and earthwork remains of a prehistoric burial
mound located just south of the summit of Wrelton Moor, immediately west of
the ruins of Leaf Howe House.
Leaf Howe round barrow is a large and prominent mound 27m in diameter and 1.8m
high. Its profile shows no evidence of antiquarian excavation and is
considered to be undisturbed. A second smaller barrow, Old Wife's Mound, lies
250m to the NNW and is the subject of a separate scheduling.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
It includes a 4 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.

Leaf Howe round barrow is a rare example of its type because it is
undisturbed. Excavation of other round barrows in the region has shown that
they demonstrate a very wide range of burial rites from simple scatters of
cremated material to coffin inhumations and cremations contained in urns,
typically dating to the Bronze Age. A common factor is that barrows were
normally used for more than one burial and that the primary burial was
frequently on or below the original ground surface, often with secondary
burials located within the body of the mound. Most barrows include a small
number of grave goods. These are often small pottery food vessels, but stone,
bone, jet and bronze items have also occasionally been found. Shallow ditches
and/or stone kerbs immediately encircling the mounds are also quite common.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
Ordinance Survey record card, SE 79 SE 16, (1973)

Source: Historic England