Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow located on heathland in the Good Sands
upland region of north west Norfolk. The barrow is visible as a flat-topped
earthen mound up to 1m in height and covering a circular area c.19m in
diameter. It is probable that the mound is encircled by a ditch, now infilled
but surviving as a buried feature.

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.

The bowl barrow north and west of Gravelpit Wood survives well. Archaeological
information concerning its construction and the manner and duration of its
use, together with evidence for the local environment at that time, will be
contained in the mound and in soils buried beneath it. The monument has
additional interest and importance as one of a number of barrows recorded on
and around West Rudham Common, and particularly in relation to a group of
three bowl barrows which survive as upstanding earthworks c.600m to the north.
As a group, these barrows provide evidence for the character and development
of the prehistoric population of the area.

Source: Historic England