Details

The monument includes eight of the nine round barrows which make up a
nucleated round barrow cemetery on Rollestone Bake Farm, 300m north west of
Fargo Road ammunition compound. The cemetery contains six bowl barrows,
arranged in a linear group aligned broadly north to south, two disc barrows
and a saucer barrow. The saucer barrow forms an outlier to the cemetery and is
the subject of a separate scheduling.

Of the bowl barrow mounds, only four are visible as earthworks, the other two
having been levelled, possibly by recent military activity. The surviving
mounds range in size from 15m to 20m in diameter and are up to 1m high. The
southern side of the southern and south western bowl barrow mounds are cut by
the line of the road. The remaining two barrows are known from early mapped
representations.

The easternmost of the two disc barrows, some 100m east of the line of bowl
barrows, is c.46m in diameter and includes a mound and surrounding berm or
platform. Immediately to the west and almost adjoining this is the second disc
barrow. This is now difficult to identify on the ground, being in an area of
linear earthworks, probably representing modern military activity. Its extent
and location are however recorded on early maps.

All the barrows are surrounded by ditches from which material was quarried
during their construction. These have become largely infilled over the years
but survive as slight earthworks in the case of the extant disc barrow and two
of the bowl barrows. The remainder of the ditches survive as buried features.
Surrounding the ditches of the two disc barrows are outer banks. On the extant
example this survives to 8m wide and 0.25m high. The bank of the western disc
barrow is known from maps to have been of similar size, though this has now
been levelled.

The Packway which cuts the mounds of the southern and south western barrows is
excluded from the scheduling although the ground beneath is included. The
north-south and the east-west dirt tracks which cross the monument at the
southern end are included in the scheduling.

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

A small number of areas in southern England appear to have acted as foci for
ceremonial and ritual activity during the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods.
Two of the best known and earliest recognised areas are around Avebury and
Stonehenge, now jointly designated as a World Heritage Site.
The area of chalk downland which surrounds Stonehenge contains one of the
densest and most varied groups of Neolithic and Bronze Age field monuments in
Britain. Included within the area are Stonehenge itself, the Stonehenge
cursus, the Durrington Walls henge, and a variety of burial monuments, many
grouped into cemeteries.
The area has been the subject of archaeological research since the 18th
century when Stukeley recorded many of the monuments and partially excavated a
number of the burial mounds. More recently, the collection of artefacts from
the surfaces of ploughed fields has supplemented the evidence for ritual and
burial by revealing the intensity of contemporary settlement and land-use. In
view of the importance of the area, all ceremonial and sepulchral monuments of
this period which retain significant archaeological remains are identified as
nationally important.
Round barrow cemeteries date to the Bronze Age (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 and occasionally associated with
earlier long barrows. Where investigation beyond the round barrows has
occurred, contemporary or later 'flat' burials between the barrow mounds have
often been revealed. Round barrow cemeteries occur across most of lowland
England with a marked concentration in Wessex. In some cases they are
clustered around other important contemporary monuments, as is the case both
here and at Avebury. Often occupying prominent positions, they are a major
historic element in the modern landscape, while their diversity and their
longevity as a monument type provide important information on the variety of
beliefs and social organisation amongst early prehistoric communities.

The round barrow cemetery 300m north west of Fargo Road ammunition compound
will contain archaeological remains despite disturbance caused by recent
military activity and the construction of The Packway. It contains examples of
rare types of barrow, including disc barrows of which there are only 250
examples recorded nationally, and saucer barrows of which only 60 are known.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Grinsell, LV, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume V, (1957), 219
Grinsell, LV, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume V, (1957), 190
Grinsell, LV, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume V, (1957), 190
Grinsell, LV, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume V, (1957), 190
Grinsell, LV, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume V, (1957), 190
Grinsell, LV, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume V, (1957), 190
Grinsell, LV, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume V, (1957), 219
Grinsell, LV, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume V, (1957), 190
Other

Source: Historic England