Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow situated on the south facing slope of a
small chalk coombe to the south of Summerslade Down, a ridge of high chalkland
to the south of the Wylye valley.
The mound of the barrow is spread by cultivation and is now 20m in diameter
and 0.3m high. The spread mound will cover a buried ditch 3m wide from which
material was quarried during its construction.
The barrow lies immediately to the south of the line of the Roman road from
Salisbury to the Mendips, having stood for many centuries before this road was
constructed. The barrow is shown on a map of 1812 produced by the antiquarian
Sir Richard Colt-Hoare.

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 having been spread by ploughing, the bowl barrow 850m north west of
Lower Pertwood Farm, on the southern slope of Pertwood Down survives
comparatively well. Although it is marked on an antiquarian's map of 1812,
there is no record that the barrow has ever been opened. It will therefore
contain archaeological and environmental remains which will provide important
evidence relating to the people who built the barrow and the landscape in
which they lived.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Colt Hoare, R, The Ancient History of Wiltshire: Volume I, (1812), 34

Source: Historic England