Ancient Monuments

History on the Ground

This site is entirely user-supported. See how you can help.

Bowl barrow 620m north of Rockley Manor: part of the Rockley Plantation barrow cemetery

A Scheduled Monument in Ogbourne St. Andrew, Wiltshire

We don't have any photos of this monument yet. Why don't you be the first to send us one?

Upload Photo »

Approximate Location Map
Large Map »

If Google Street View is available, the image is from the best available vantage point looking, if possible, towards the location of the monument. Where it is not available, the satellite view is shown instead.

Coordinates

Latitude: 51.4514 / 51°27'5"N

Longitude: -1.7637 / 1°45'49"W

OS Eastings: 416517.699846

OS Northings: 172517.202876

OS Grid: SU165725

Mapcode National: GBR 4WM.YQX

Mapcode Global: VHB40.CSZ7

Entry Name: Bowl barrow 620m north of Rockley Manor: part of the Rockley Plantation barrow cemetery

Scheduled Date: 3 March 1927

Last Amended: 9 July 1991

Source: Historic England

Source ID: 1012255

English Heritage Legacy ID: 12273

County: Wiltshire

Civil Parish: Ogbourne St. Andrew

Traditional County: Wiltshire

Lieutenancy Area (Ceremonial County): Wiltshire

Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow set on a slight east-facing slope above
the floor of a dry valley in an area of undulating chalk downland. The
barrow mound is 3m high and 29m in diameter. Although no longer visible at
ground level, a ditch from which material was quarried during the
construction of the monument, surrounds the mound. This survives as a buried
feature c.3m wide. The diameter of mound and ditch together is 35m.
The monument forms part of a wider barrow cemetery which comprises five
other barrow mounds.

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 Rockley Plantation barrows survive well, despite afforestation, and have
good potential for the recovery of archaeological evidence for the nature
and duration of use of the monuments and the environment within which they
were constructed. Such barrow cemeteries give an indication of the
intensity with which areas were settled during the Bronze Age period as well
as the variety of beliefs and nature of social organisation present within
society at that time.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
'Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine' in Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine, , Vol. 49, (1958)

Source: Historic England

Other nearby scheduled monuments

AncientMonuments.uk is an independent online resource and is not associated with any government department. All government data published here is used under licence. Please do not contact AncientMonuments.uk for any queries related to any individual ancient or schedued monument, planning permission related to scheduled monuments or the scheduling process itself.

AncientMonuments.uk is a Good Stuff website.