Details

This monument includes three bowl barrows on a high ridge location overlooking
the valley of Weasel Water, a tributary to the River Torridge. The three
barrows all survive as circular or oval mounds with their surrounding quarry
ditches being preserved as buried features. The northernmost barrow measures
28.8m in diameter and is 0.7m high. The southern barrow measures 25.9m in
diameter and is 0.4m high. The easternmost barrow measures 26.5m long north
to south by 24.1m east to west and is 0.4m high. This barrow is cut by an
established track and is partly overlain by two field boundaries.
The field boundaries crossing the monument are excluded from the scheduling,
although the ground beneath 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 having been reduced in height by cultivation, the three bowl barrows
240m west of Bower Farm survive comparatively well on a prominent ridge top
location. Archaeological and environmental information relating to the
monument and the landscape in which it was constructed survives in and under
these mounds.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
Devon County Sites and Monuments Register, SS31SE17, (1972)
Devon County Sites and Monuments Register, SS31SE18, (1972)
Devon County Sites and Monuments Register, SS31WSE16, (1972)

Source: Historic England