Details

This monument includes a bowl barrow situated on a high upland ridge
overlooking the valley of a tributary to Dury Water and forming part of a
round barrow cemetery. Seven other barrows which make up the cemetery lie to
the north, north west and north east and are the subject of separate
schedulings.
The monument includes an oval mound measuring 16.6m long, north to south by
15.9m wide, east to west and 0.5m high. The surrounding outer quarry ditch
from which material to construct the mound was derived survives as a buried
feature approximately 3m wide.
The ditched field boundary and stock proof fence which cross the southern side
of the monument 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.

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.

Despite some reduction in its height through cultivation and a slight cut on
the southern side, the bowl barrow 770m south east of Sandymoor Cross survives
comparatively well. The monument will contain information concerning both the
archaeology of the monument and its integral place within the cemetery as a
whole, as well as environmental evidence relating to the surrounding
landscape.
Bowl barrows are the most numerous form of round barrow, with over 10,000
examples recorded nationally. They were constructed as earthen or rubble
mounds each covering single or multiple burials.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
Devon County Sites and Monuments Register, SX39NE5, (1983)

Source: Historic England