Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Bronze Age bowl barrow

Monument Types

• BOWL BARROW (Bronze Age - 2350 BC to 701 BC)

Full description

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[Area TR 182385] A tumulus and ditches, have been reported on this spur. (1) At TR 18223852 is a bowl barrow situated upon the end of a ridge. It is in fair condition, except for a slight hollow at the top, measures 20.5m E-W by 17.5m N-S and is 2.0m high. There is no visible ditch. Surveyed at 1/2500. The reference to ditches would seem to apply to a positive lynchet which encircles the flattish top of the ridge and beneath which, along the S. side, runs a hollow way. (2) A trench dug from the south by Mr J Hill in 1966 suggests that the mound may be natural chalk. (3) No change. (4) A tumulus is listed in Newington (5,6) (although it may not refer to this particular site, but TR 13 NE 3) no trace now exists. (5,6)


From the National Heritage List for England:

The monument includes a bowl barrow situated on a spur projecting from a ridge of the Kent Downs. The barrow has a large, west-east orientated, oval mound measuring 23m by 17.5m, surviving to a height of 2m. The mound is surrounded by a ditch from which material used to construct the barrow was excavated. This has become infilled over the years, but survives as a buried feature c.3m wide.
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. There are over 10,000 surviving bowl barrows recorded nationally (many more have already been destroyed), occurring across most of lowland Britain. 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 and a substantial proportion of surviving examples are considered worthy of protection.

Despite a small amount of disturbance caused by military training activity and poaching by cattle, the bowl barrow on Arpinge Range survives in good condition and will contain archaeological remains and environmental evidence relating to the monument and the landscape in which it was constructed. (9)

RPS Clouston, 1994, Folkestone & Dover Water services: Bluehouse to Cherry Garden Trunk Main (Unpublished document). SKE6910.

RPS Clouston, 1994, Folkestone & Dover Water services: Bluehouse to Cherry Garden Trunk Main (Unpublished document). SKe6910.

<1> Rec 6" (O.G.S. Crawford, undated) (OS Card Reference). SKE49053.

<2> F1 ASP 26-APR-1963 (OS Card Reference). SKE42301.

<3> Bradshaw J, Ashford Arcaheol Soc 14-AUG-1967 (OS Card Reference). SKE38284.

<4> F2 ASP 01-DEC-1969 (OS Card Reference). SKE43069.

<5> Clinch G, VCH Kent 1 1908 (ed W Page) 331 (OS Card Reference). SKE39021.

<6> Ashbee P and Dunning GC, Archaeol Cant 74 1960 56 (OS Card Reference). SKE37394.

<7> Field report for monument TR 13 NE 14 - April, 1963 (Bibliographic reference). SKE5337.

<8> Field report for monument TR 13 NE 14 - December, 1969 (Bibliographic reference). SKE5338.

<9> English Heritage, Register of Scheduled Monuments (Scheduling record). SKE16191.

Sources and further reading