Details

This monument includes a fancy barrow situated on lowland heath. The
earthwork includes a flat internal area measuring 34m in diameter surrounded
by a circular bank 4m wide and 0.6m high. Surrounding the external edge of
this bank is a ditch from which material was quarried during the construction
of the barrow. This has become partly infilled over the years, but survives
as a slight earthwork measuring 2m wide and 0.3m deep. This barrow is part of
the Beaulieu Airfield round barrow cemetery.

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.

The fancy barrow 500m north-east of Little Dilton Farm is part of a
round barrow cemetery in the New Forest, an area known to have been important
in terms of lowland Bronze Age occupation. A considerable amount of
archaeological evidence has survived in this area because of a lack of
agricultural activity, the result of later climatic deterioration, development
of heath and the establishment of a Royal Forest.
The unusual characteristic of the ditch being external to the surrounding bank
makes this site of particular interest and significance.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Kidner, H, 'Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club' in An Unrecorded Type Of Circular Earthwor In The New Forest, , Vol. 8, (1917), 310-314

Source: Historic England