Details

The monument includes six bowl barrows situated upon a ridge known as
Blacknoll Hill, overlooking Knighton Heath to the south, Winfrith Heath to the
north and the Frome Valley to the east. The barrows form the core of a wider
group of 12 which, together, form a round barrow cemetery on the western part
of Winfrith Heath.
The barrows each have a mound composed of earth, sand and turf, with maximum
dimensions of between 11m-22m in diameter and between c.0.75m-1.5m in height.
Each mound is surrounded by a ditch from which material was quarried during
the construction of the monument. The ditches have become infilled over the
years, but each will survive as a buried feature about 2m 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.

The six bowl barrows on Blacknoll Hill survive comparatively well and will
contain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to the monument and
the landscape in which it was constructed.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset: Volume I, (1970), 461
Other
Description, RCHME, National Monuments Record,

Source: Historic England