Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow just off the crest and on the south facing
side of a Greensand ridge which runs east-west in the central south west part
of the Isle of Wight.
The barrow has a mound which measures 13.5m east-west and 18m north-south. It
is c.1.5m high. Surrounding the mound is a ditch from which material was
quarried during its construction. This has become infilled over the years and
can no longer be seen at ground level, but it survives as a buried feature
c.3m wide.
A fragment of Saxon urn was found on the barrow in the 1930s. In 1931 Morris
and Mew partly excavated the mound by trenching and found a cremation burial
at the centre.
The post and wire fence is excluded from the scheduling, but the ground
beneath is included.

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 bowl barrow known as `Sheards Barrow' survives well and is known from
part excavation to contain archaeological remains and environmental evidence
relating to the barrow and the landscape in which it was constructed. The
barrow is one of very few on the Isle of Wight which is constructed on
Greensand.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Grinsell, , Sherwin, , 'Proceedings of the I.O.W. Nat History and Archaeological Soc' in Procedings of the I.O.W. Nat History and Archaeological Soc, , Vol. 3, (1940), 182,184
Morey, C, 'Proceedings of the I.O.W. Nat history and Archaeological Society' in Proceedings of the I.O.W. Nat History and Archaeological Society, , Vol. 2, (1931), 142

Source: Historic England