Details

The monument includes a Bronze Age bowl barrow 310m south east of Lower Chance
Farm on Blewbury Down. The barrow forms part of a large dispersed round barrow
cemetery which is believed to have originally included 15 or more individual
barrows, many of which are scheduled separately. The barrow mound survives as
an earth mound measuring 24m in diameter and standing up to 1.6m high. The
mound is believed to be surrounded by a quarry ditch from which material was
obtained during its construction. This has become infilled over the years but
based on similar sized barrows in the region is expected to measure
approximately 3m wide and survive as a buried feature.
In 1846 this barrow was reported to be one of three in this location, although
the two barrows associated appear to have been excavated and contained an
unfired clay urn, filled with bone fragments and a bone pin. The exact
location of the other two barrows is no longer known, and they do not appear
on aerial photographs suggesting that their sites were either destroyed or
buried by the later construction of the rifle butts and more recent gallops on
this part of the downs.

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 bowl barrow 310m south east of Lower Chance Farm is part of the larger
cemetery on Blewbury Down. It survives well and will contain archaeological
evidence relating to its construction and the landscape in which the cemetery
was built.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
PRN 9658, C.A.O., BOWL BARROW, (1994)

Source: Historic England