Details

The monument includes a pond barrow some 400m south east of Strangways north
west of Countess Farm buildings and situated on a raised plateau which lies
between the River Avon and Stonehenge. The barrow has a central depression or
`pond' surrounded by a bank. These features are now difficult to identify
on the ground having been levelled by ploughing, but are visible as a circular
cropmark on aerial photographs from which the overall diameter of the barrow
has been calculated to be c.20m.

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 the 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.

Pond barrows are ceremonial or funerary monuments of the Early to Middle
Bronze Age, most examples dating to between 1500 BC and 1000 BC. The term
`barrow' is something of a misnomer as, rather than a mound, they were
constructed as regular circular depressions with an embanked rim and
occasionally an outer ditch or entrance through the bank. They occur either in
isolation or within round barrow cemeteries. Pond barrows are the rarest form
of round barrow with about 60 examples recorded nationally and a distribution
largely confined to Wiltshire and Dorset, many of which are in the Stonehenge
area. As few examples have been excavated, they have a particularly high value
for future study. Due to their rarity, all identified pond barrows will
normally be considered to be of national importance.

Despite having been levelled by ploughing, the pond barrow 400m south east of
Strangways survives in the form of buried features and will contain
archaeological remains and environmental evidence relating to the monument and
the landscape in which it was constructed.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other

Source: Historic England