Details

The monument includes two bowl barrows forming part of a wider round barrow
cemetery. The barrows are aligned broadly SE-NW and are situated 450m
north-east of Chalk Hill Cottage on the eastern side of Cow Common, a gently
sloping plateau with views to the south and east located in the area of the
Cotswold Hills.
The northern barrow has a mound 21m in diameter and c.0.25m high and the
southern barrow is 17m in diameter and c.0.3m high. Each mound is surrounded
by a ditch from which material was quarried during the construction of the
monument. These have become infilled over the years, but survive as buried
features c.2m wide.
The two bowl barrows belong to a group of at least ten barrows which
originally formed the Cow Common round barrow cemetery; one of these has been
fully excavated.
The monument is associated with concentrations of worked flint and other
prehistoric finds such as pottery which have been found in the vicinity.

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 two bowl barrows 450m north-east of Chalk Hill Cottage will contain
archaeological and environmental evidence relating to the cemetery and the
landscape in which it was constructed.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
O`Neil, H E, Grinsell, L V, 'Proc of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Arch Soc' in Gloucestershire Barrows, , Vol. 179, (1960), 132
Other
Reference to barrow cemetery,
Reference to round barrow cemetery,

Source: Historic England