Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow situated on a low ridge overlooking the
Piddle Valley to the north.
The barrow has a mound composed of earth, sand and turf, with maximum
dimensions of 20m in diameter and about 1.2m in height. The mound has a
central depression 4m in diameter and a series of military trenches within
the north eastern area although all are now much infilled. Surrounding the
mound is a quarry ditch from which material was quarried during the
construction of the monument. This ditch is visible as an earthwork 5m
wide and about 0.5m deep and is overlain by a boundary bank on the south
west side. The bank is of uncertain date and its course beyond the
monument is, therefore, not included in the scheduling.
All fence posts are excluded from the scheduling, although the ground
beneath them 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 some disturbance by past excavation, the bowl barrow in Throop
Clump, 450m west of Heatherdown survives comparatively well and will
contain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to the monument
and the landscape in which it was constructed.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset: Volume I, (1970), 434

Source: Historic England