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Round barrow cemetery on Povington Heath 550m north-east of Whiteway Farm

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1008026
Date first listed:: 14-Nov-1962

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1008026
Date first listed:: 14-Nov-1962
Date of most recent amendment:: 17-Mar-1994

Location

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: Dorset (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Steeple with Tyneham
National Grid Reference:: SY 87691 81815

Reasons for Designation

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 barrow cemetery on Povington Heath has survived well and contains archaeological remains and environmental evidence relating to the monument and the landscape in which it was constructed. These barrows are amongst a number which survive on this piece of heathland between the River Frome and the Dorset coast.

Details

The monument includes a linear round barrow cemetery aligned NE-SW lying on lowland heath close to the Dorset coast. The cemetery includes five bowl barrows with mounds ranging in height between 1m and 1.5m and in diameter from 9m to 10m. The barrows are evenly spaced, varying between 3m and 6m apart. Each of the mounds was surrounded by a ditch from which material was quarried during their construction. These can no longer be seen at ground level, but survive as buried features c.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.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 21934
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, , County of Dorset , (1970), 454

Legal

This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.