Ancient Monuments

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Upton bowl barrow

A Scheduled Monument in Hunsbury Meadows, Northamptonshire

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Coordinates

Latitude: 52.2254 / 52°13'31"N

Longitude: -0.9422 / 0°56'31"W

OS Eastings: 472350.274203

OS Northings: 259099.032839

OS Grid: SP723590

Mapcode National: GBR BWD.GM0

Mapcode Global: VHDS4.MB8D

Entry Name: Upton bowl barrow

Scheduled Date: 6 July 1992

Source: Historic England

Source ID: 1010742

English Heritage Legacy ID: 13674

County: Northamptonshire

Civil Parish: Hunsbury Meadows

Built-Up Area: Northampton

Traditional County: Northamptonshire

Lieutenancy Area (Ceremonial County): Northamptonshire

Church of England Parish: Duston St Luke

Church of England Diocese: Peterborough

Details

The bowl barrow at Upton lies south east of Upton Mill. It is located 60m to
the north-east of the mill stream and 350m east of Upton Way.
Upton Bronze Age bowl barrow stands as a low round mound up to 0.65 metres
high. The barrow is 28m in diameter and has a slight dip in the centre.
Although no longer visible at ground level, a ditch from which material was
quarried during the construction of the monument, surrounds the barrow mound.
This has become infilled over the years but survives as a buried feature 3m
wide. Records suggest that the Bronze Age barrow was re-used in the medieval
period as a windmill mound.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
It includes a 4 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.

Upton bowl barrow is a large and well preserved example of a Northamptonshire
barrow. It will retain considerable potential for the survival of
archaeological and environmental evidence within the body of the mound.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
SMR records, Upton Bowl Barrow, (1991)

Source: Historic England

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