Details

The monument includes two bowl barrows, part of a linear round barrow cemetery
consisting of five bowl barrows, four surviving as earthworks while the fifth
has been levelled by cultivation. It is situated in a dry valley sloping SSE
in chalk downland. The surviving barrow mound is 25m in diameter and 0.3m
high. Surrounding this is a ditch from which material was quarried during the
construction of the monument. It is no longer visible at ground level, having
become infilled over the years, but now survives as a buried feature c.3m
wide. The second barrow 15m to the SSE no longer survives as an earthwork
having been ploughed over many years. Despite this, buried features such as
the ditch and Bronze Age ground surface, still survive. When last recorded,
the mound was c.20m in diameter and was surrounded by a quarry ditch c.3m
wide.

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

Round barrow cemeteries date to the Bronze Age (c.2000-700 BC). They comprise
closely-spaced groups of up to 30 round barrows - rubble or earthen mounds
covering single or multiple burials. Most cemeteries developed over a
considerable period of time, often many centuries, and in some cases acted as
a focus for burials as late as the early medieval period. They exhibit
considerable diversity of burial rite, plan and form, frequently including
several different types of round barrow, occasionally associated with earlier
long barrows. Where large scale investigation has been undertaken around them,
contemporary or later "flat" burials between the barrow mounds have often been
revealed. Round barrow cemeteries occur across most of lowland Britain, with a
marked concentration in Wessex. In some cases, they are clustered around other
important contemporary monuments such as henges. Often occupying prominent
locations, they are a major historic element in the modern landscape, whilst
their diversity and their longevity as a monument type provide important
information on the variety of beliefs and social organisation amongst early
prehistoric communities. They are particularly representative of their period
and a substantial proportion of surviving or partly-surviving examples are
considered worthy of protection.

Despite damage from ploughing, one of the two bowl barrows south of Westburton
Hill survives as an earthwork and both contain archaeological remains and
environmental evidence relating to the monument and the landscape in which it
was constructed.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Grinsell, L V, 'Sussex Archaeological Collections' in Sussex Barrows, , Vol. 75, (1934)

Source: Historic England