Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow of late Neolithic or Bronze Age date
situated on an apron of relatively flat, low lying ground between the A272 and
the base of War Hill. It may form part of a more extensive round barrow
cemetery arranged around the toe of the hill, of which at least four
additional barrows survive. Although occupying an apparently inconspicuous
location, the monument would have been prominently visible from across the
valley to the north east where a coaxial field system, probably dating to the
same period, has been identified from aerial photographs.
The barrow has been considerably lowered and spread by modern ploughing, but
survives as a slight circular mound, visible in freshly ploughed soil as a
compacted area of flint and chalk rubble, 24m in diameter and raised
approximately 0.1m. Although the mound has been significantly damaged, the
underlying primary burial and a surrounding quarry ditch, from which material
for the mound's construction would have been obtained, are both likely to
survive as buried features.

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 620m north east of Warhill Cottage survives well despite being
spread by modern ploughing, and can be expected to retain important
archaeological remains and environmental evidence relating to the monument and
the landscape in which it was constructed. Its close spatial association with
the sites of four additional bowl barrows situated to the north west indicates
it may have formed a component of a larger round barrow cemetery. Such
cemeteries typically contain between 5 and 30 individual barrows and are known
to have been constructed throughout the Bronze Age period, between 2000 and
700 BC.

Source: Historic England