Ancient Monuments

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Colnpen round barrows

A Scheduled Monument in North Cerney, Gloucestershire

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Coordinates

Latitude: 51.7755 / 51°46'31"N

Longitude: -1.9019 / 1°54'6"W

OS Eastings: 406863.5924

OS Northings: 208541.4387

OS Grid: SP068085

Mapcode National: GBR 3Q7.RYY

Mapcode Global: VHB2C.ZMDR

Entry Name: Colnpen round barrows

Scheduled Date: 14 January 1949

Source: Historic England

Source ID: 1003352

English Heritage Legacy ID: GC 242

County: Gloucestershire

Civil Parish: North Cerney

Traditional County: Gloucestershire

Lieutenancy Area (Ceremonial County): Gloucestershire

Church of England Parish: Coln Rogers St Andrew

Church of England Diocese: Gloucester

Summary

Four bowl barrows 450m north west of Colnpen Barn.

Source: Historic England

Details

This record was the subject of a minor enhancement on 24 September 2015. The record has been generated from an "old county number" (OCN) scheduling record. These are monuments that were not reviewed under the Monuments Protection Programme and are some of our oldest designation records.

The monument, which falls into two separate areas of protection, includes four bowl barrows situated on the eastern side of a valley of a tributary to the River Coln. The barrows are arranged as a group of three aligned roughly south west to north east with a single outlier to the south. They survive as circular mounds surrounded by buried quarry ditches from which the construction material was derived. The barrow mounds range in size from 12m up to 15m in diameter and from 0.2m up to 0.8m high.

Further archaeological remains in the immediate vicinity are the subject of separate schedulings.

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. 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.

Despite reduction in the heights of the mounds through past cultivation the four bowl barrows 450m north west of Colnpen Barn survive comparatively well and will contain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to their construction, relative chronologies, territorial significance, social organisation, ritual and funerary practices and overall landscape context.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
PastScape 327154 and 327148

Source: Historic England

Other nearby scheduled monuments

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