Details

The monument includes one of a pair of bowl barrows 735m SSE of Kingston
Dairy at the top of King's Hill, a ridge of Middle Chalk overlooking the upper
reaches of the Wylye valley to the north.
The mound of the barrow, which has been spread by ploughing, is 0.4m high and
21m in diameter. A dark ring of soil, visible on aerial photographs indicates
a surrounding quarry ditch, 6m wide. This has become infilled over the years
but will survive as a buried feature. Surrounding this are the remains of an
external bank 5m wide, visible as a lighter patch of soil.
A modern metalled track and a fenceline, where they fall within the area of
the monument, 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 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.

Although it has been spread by ploughing, the bowl barrow 735m SSE of Kingston
Dairy survives in the form of extant and buried remains and will contain
archaeological and environmental evidence relating to the monument and the
landscape in which it was constructed.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Grinsell, L V, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire, (1957), 179 (7)

Source: Historic England