Ancient Monuments

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Bowl barrow on Tapnell Down

A Scheduled Monument in Freshwater, Isle of Wight

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Coordinates

Latitude: 50.669 / 50°40'8"N

Longitude: -1.4687 / 1°28'7"W

OS Eastings: 437643.591747

OS Northings: 85615.11122

OS Grid: SZ376856

Mapcode National: GBR 795.TSB

Mapcode Global: FRA 77T9.MN8

Entry Name: Bowl barrow on Tapnell Down

Scheduled Date: 23 June 1967

Last Amended: 9 January 1992

Source: Historic England

Source ID: 1010507

English Heritage Legacy ID: 12331

County: Isle of Wight

Civil Parish: Freshwater

Traditional County: Hampshire

Lieutenancy Area (Ceremonial County): Isle of Wight

Church of England Parish: Freshwater All Saints

Church of England Diocese: Portsmouth

Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow set below the crest of a chalk ridge
running east-west across the centre of the island. The barrow mound is 15m in
diameter and 1m high. A ditch, from which material was quarried during
construction of the monument, surrounds the mound. This has become infilled
over the years but survives as a buried feature 2m wide and visible to the
west as a strip of improved grass cover.

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.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
'PROC OF THE ISLE OF WIGHT NATURAL HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY SOC' in Proceedings of the Isle of Wight Natural History and Archaelogical Society, , Vol. 3, (1940), 190

Source: Historic England

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