Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow on the flat summit of Keysley Down, a
rise of Upper Chalk within an area of high ground to the south of the
upper Wylye Valley.
The barrow has been spread by ploughing but the mound still stands to a
height of 0.3m and is 25.5m in diameter. The mound is surrounded by a
ditch from which material was quarried during its construction. This has
become infilled but will survive as a buried feature 3m wide.
A further barrow 790m to the SSE is the subject of a separate scheduling
(SM 12305).

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.

Despite being spread by ploughing, the barrow 1460m east of Keysley Farm
stands to a height of 0.3m and will contain archaeological and environmental
remains, 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), 180

Source: Historic England