Details

The monument includes a group of three Bronze Age bowl barrows located on the
broad summit of a steep incline overlooking Wells to the south west, at the
eastern edge of the Mendip Hills.
The three barrows form a triangle with the one to the north forming the apex
and the further two located to the south east and the south west of it.
The mound of the northernmost barrow is 18m in diameter and 0.4m high, the
mound of the barrow to the south west is 22m in diameter and 1.5m high and
that of the barrow to the south east is 24m in diameter and 2m high. In common
with other barrows in the area, all three mounds are surrounded by a ditch
from which material was quarried during their construction. These ditches have
become infilled over the years and they now survive as buried features
approximately 2m wide around the northernmost mound and 3m wide around the
mounds of the two southern barrows.
All fencing and fence posts are excluded from the scheduling, although the
ground beneath these features 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.

Despite the northernmost mound of the barrows 400m north west of Haydon Hut
having been reduced by ploughing, the barows survive well and they will
contain archaeological remains and environmental evidence relating to the
monument and the landscape in which it was constructed.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Grinsell, L, 'Proceedings of Somerset Archaeology and Natural History Society' in Somerset Barrows, , Vol. 115, (1971), 116
Grinsell, L, 'Proceedings of Somerset Archaeology and Natural History Society' in Somerset Barrows, , Vol. 115, (1971), 117
Grinsell, L, 'Proceedings of Somerset Archaeology and Natural History Society' in Somerset Barrows, , Vol. 115, (1971), 117
Tratman, E K, 'Proc Univ Bristol Spel Soc' in Fieldwork, , Vol. 5(1), (1938), 82-3
Tratman, E K, 'Proc Univ Bristol Spel Soc' in Fieldwork, , Vol. 5(1), (1938), 83
Tratman, E K, 'Proc Univ Bristol Spel Soc' in Fieldwork, , Vol. 5(1), (1938), 82-3

Source: Historic England