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Bowl barrow on Stock Hill: part of the Stock Hill round barrow cemetery

A Scheduled Monument in Chewton Mendip, Somerset

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Coordinates

Latitude: 51.2557 / 51°15'20"N

Longitude: -2.6365 / 2°38'11"W

OS Eastings: 355679.148971

OS Northings: 150914.154559

OS Grid: ST556509

Mapcode National: GBR MN.15W6

Mapcode Global: VH89L.8P1S

Entry Name: Bowl barrow on Stock Hill: part of the Stock Hill round barrow cemetery

Scheduled Date: 19 December 1929

Last Amended: 5 December 1995

Source: Historic England

Source ID: 1014239

English Heritage Legacy ID: 22853

County: Somerset

Civil Parish: Chewton Mendip

Traditional County: Somerset

Lieutenancy Area (Ceremonial County): Somerset

Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow forming part of a round barrow
cemetery, situated on the south facing slope of Stock Hill.
The barrow has a mound 12.5m wide and c.0.5m high, surrounded by a ditch from
which material was quarried during its construction. This has become infilled
over the years, but survives as a buried feature c.3m wide.
The barrow is one of at least seven bowl barrows which originally formed the
round barrow cemetery at Stock Hill.

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 bowl barrow on Stock Hill survives comparatively well and will contain
archaeological information relating to the cemetery and the landscape in which
it was constructed.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Grinsell, L, 'Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeology and Natural Hist Soc' in Somerset Barrows Part II, (1971), 99-100
Grinsell, L, 'Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeology and Natural Hist Soc' in Somerset Barrows Part II, (1971), 100
Tratman, E K, 'Proc Univ Bristol Spel Soc' in Fieldwork, (1938), 83
Tratman, E K, 'Proc Univ Bristol Spel Soc' in Fieldwork, (1938), 83
Other
Mention of failure to find barrow, Mercer R J, AM 107, (1969)

Source: Historic England

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