Details

The monument includes two Bronze Age bowl barrows and a pair of confluent
round barrows aligned roughly east to west and located 270m north east of
Churn Farm. They are situated on a hill crest overlooking a valley to the
south east within which lie a further two bell barrows, the subject of
separate schedulings. The barrows form part of a large dispersed round barrow
cemetery which originally consisted of at least 15 individual barrows.
The barrow mounds to the east and west of the confluent pair both survive as
upstanding stone and earth mounds measuring approximately 25m and 33m in
diameter respectively and standing up to 1.6m high. The mounds were originally
surrounded by quarry ditches from which material was obtained for their
construction. These have become infilled over the years but are known from
excavation and aerial photographs to survive as buried features approximately
3m wide.
The pair of confluent mounds forming the middle of the group are no longer
separate adjoining earthworks but form a single irregular mound measuring 34m
east-west by 27m north-south and standing up to 1.8m high. The two separate
mound summits and the `ghost' outlines of the individual mounds can be seen
however, in the contours of the surviving earthwork.
Part excavation carried out in 1848 produced a number of burnt bone fragments
in the vicinity of the barrows.

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

Round barrow cemeteries date to the Bronze Age (c.2000-700 BC). They comprise
closely-spaced groups of up to 30 round barrows - rubble or earthen mounds
covering single or multiple burials. Most cemeteries developed over a
considerable period of time, often many centuries, and in some cases acted as
a focus for burials as late as the early medieval period. They exhibit
considerable diversity of burial rite, plan and form, frequently including
several different types of round barrow, occasionally associated with earlier
long barrows. Where large scale investigation has been undertaken around them,
contemporary or later "flat" burials between the barrow mounds have often been
revealed. Round barrow cemeteries occur across most of lowland Britain, with a
marked concentration in Wessex. In some cases, they are clustered around other
important contemporary monuments such as henges. Often occupying prominent
locations, they are a major historic element in the modern landscape, whilst
their diversity and their longevity as a monument type provide important
information on the variety of beliefs and social organisation amongst early
prehistoric communities. They are particularly representative of their period
and a substantial proportion of surviving or partly-surviving examples are
considered worthy of protection.

The two bowl barrows and pair of confluent barrows 270m north east of Churn
Farm form the largest surviving visible group of round barrows within the
landscape originally occupied by the larger cemetery on Blewbury Down.
They are known to survive well, and part excavation in the last century has
confirmed that they will contain archaeological evidence relating to their
construction and the landscape in which they were built.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
PRN 9209, C.A.O., Three barrows, (1994)

Source: Historic England