Details

The monument includes the earthwork and buried remains of a bowl barrow
located about 130m above sea level on a plateau above and to the west of the
River Bain. It is situated in Tongue Piece Holt, an area of woodland
immediately adjacent to High Street. The roughly circular rounded mound
measures approximately 22.5m in diameter and stands to a maximum height of 1m.
Traces of the encircling ditch from which material for the mound would have
been quarried are visible as slight depressions in the ground around the
eastern perimeter of the barrow mound. Elsewhere the ditch is no longer
visible, although the complete circuit is thought to survive buried beneath
the present ground surface.
The monument is one of a number of Bronze Age burial mounds in the area,
including Biscathorpe bowl barrow some 150m to the north (SM 27878), and South
Willingham bowl barrow about 400m to the south (SM 27875), all of which are
associated with the valley of the River Bain and with High Street which is
known to have originated as a prehistoric trackway. These barrows are the
subject of separate schedulings.
All fences and fenceposts are excluded from the scheduling, although the
ground beneath them is included.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
It includes a 5 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 bowl barrow in Tongue Piece Holt survives in good condition as a
substantial earthwork which is largely undisturbed. Valuable archaeological
deposits, including funerary remains, will survive within and under the mound
and in the fills of the surrounding ditch, providing information concerning
the barrow's dating and construction. Environmental evidence preserved in
these contexts will contain information on the character of the landscape in
which the monument was set.
The monument is one of a number of Bronze Age burial mounds associated with
the prehistoric trackway now formalised as High Street and with the valley of
the River Bain. These associations pose wider questions concerning both the
ritual significance of the location and the demography and settlement patterns
in the prehistoric period.

Source: Historic England