Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

A round Bronze Age saucer barrow is located in a clearing on top of a ridge in Warren Wood. The central mound measures 18.0m in diameter and 0.5m in height, and is surrounded by a ditch and outer bank. Reports state that this monument is now much reduced and covered with brambles. The site is a scheduled ancient monument.

Monument Types

• SAUCER BARROW (Bronze Age - 2350 BC (at some time) to 701 BC (at some time))

Full description

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At TR 07444852, in a clearing on top of a ridge in Warren Wood, is a saucer barrow, much reduced and covered with brambles. The central mound measures 18.0m in diameter and 0.5m in height, and is surrounded by a ditch and outer bank. The ditch and bank together measure 7.0m in width, 0.3m in depth and 0.2m in height respectively. Surveyed at 1:2500. (1) [TR 074485] Round barrow in Women (sic) Wood (2), round barrow in Warren Wood (3). Scheduled. (2,3) [TR 07444852] Plan of barrow shown. (4) [TR 074485] Round barrow in Warren Wood. Scheduled listing. (5)

From the Register of Scheduled Monuments:
The monument includes a saucer barrow which comprises a low central mound with an encircling ditch which is in turn surrounded by a low bank of earth. The central mound measures 18m in diameter and stands to 0.7m above the level of the surrounding ground at its summit. The ditch that defines the mound measures some 4m across and drops to only 0.3m below the ground level, having been largely infilled by erosion from the mound and the outer bank. It was earth from this ditch which was used to build both the central low mound and the surrounding bank. Beyond the ditch is the outer bank, 2m across and only 0.2m high. The overall diameter of the monument is therefore some 30m.

Saucer barrows are funerary monuments of the Early Bronze Age, most examples dating to between 1800 and l200 BC. They occur either in isolation or in barrow cemeteries (closely-spaced groups of round barrows). They were constructed as a circular area of level ground defined by a bank and internal ditch and largely occupied by a single low, squat mound covering one or more burials, usually in a pit. The burials, either inhumations or cremations, are sometimes accompanied by pottery vessels, tools and personal ornaments. Saucer barrows are one of the rarest recognised forms of round barrow, with about 60 known examples nationally, most of which are in Wessex. The presence of grave goods within the barrows provides important evidence for chronological and cultural links amongst prehistoric communities over a wide area of southern England as well as providing an insight into their beliefs and social organisation. As a rare and fragile form of round barrow, all identified saucer barrows would normally be considered to be of national importance.

The example in Warren Wood survives well and is an outlier to the main concentration of such monuments, being the only one known in Kent. (8)

<1> F1 ASP 14-NOV-69 (OS Card Reference). SKE42106.

<2> Mr J Bradshaw 8 Forest Cottages Challock (OS Card Reference). SKE47386.

<3> DOE (IAM) AMs England 2 1978 109 (OS Card Reference). SKE40694.

<4> DOE (IAM) Record Form and plan Nov 1973 (OS Card Reference). SKE40752.

<5> DOE (IAM) Record Form 1973 (OS Card Reference). SKE40737.

<6> DOE (IAM) Sams 1988 Kent 2 (OS Card Reference). SKE40769.

<7> Field report for monument TR 04 NE 26 - November, 1969 (Bibliographic reference). SKE5141.

<8> English Heritage, Register of Scheduled Monuments (Scheduling record). SKE16191.

Sources and further reading