Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Bronze Age bowl barrow, scheduled. A bowl barrow, 21.0m in diameter and 3.5m high with no visible ditch. it is mutilated on the top and south side, and has trees growing upon it, but is otherwise fair condition.

Monument Types

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

Full description

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[TR 15944290] Tumulus (NR) (1)

Round Barrow at Rhodes Minnis. "Capt. North found sherd of Bronze Age pot, bones and flints." (2)

A bowl barrow, 21.0m in diameter and 3.5m high with no visible ditch. it is mutilated on the top and south side, and has trees growing upon it, but is otherwise fair condition. Published 25" survey correct.(3)

TR 159429. Round barrow 75 yds east of Boyle Wood. Scheduled. (4,5)

The monument includes a bowl barrow of Bronze Age date which comprises an earthern mound and an encircling ditch. The mound measures 21m in diameter and stands to an impressive 2.8m above the general ground level. The surrounding ditch has been completely infilled by erosion from the mound and is no longer visible on the surface. It would have been dug originally to provide the earth for the construction of the mound. The mound and the ditch together have a diameter of 25m.

The summit of the mound is marked by a shallow depression which corroborates the records of a small-scale parital excavation by a Captian North in the later 19th Century, during which investigation pieces of Bronze Age pottery and other unidentified bones and flint flakes were found. On the southern side of the mound is a second small infilled excavation trench which dates from the Second World War.(7)

Additional Information(6)

From the National Heritage List for England:
The monument includes a bowl barrow of Bronze Age date which comprises an earthen mound and an encircling ditch. The mound measures 21m in diameter and stands to an impressive 2.8m above the general ground level. The surrounding ditch has been completely infilled by erosion from the mound and is no longer visible on the surface. It would have been dug originally to provide the earth for the construction of the mound. The mound and the ditch together have a diameter of 25m. The summit of the mound is marked by a shallow depression which corroborates the records of a small-scale partial excavation by a Captain North in the later 19th century, during which investigation pieces of Bronze Age pottery and other unidentified bones and flint flakes were found. On the southern side of the mound is a second small infilled excavation trench which dates from the Second World War.
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 the disturbance to the mound caused by small-scale partial excavation, the Bowick Lodge barrow still retains considerable archaeological potential since much of the mound and the burials placed within it, the old ground surface beneath it and the ditch around it all survive undisturbed. These areas will contain evidence of the manner and duration of use of the monument as well as of the environment in which the barrow was constructed (8)

<1> OS 6" 1961 (OS Card Reference). SKE48369.

<2> KAS Index (OS Card Reference). SKE45646.

<3> Ashbee, P. & Dunning, G. C., 1961, The Round Barrows of East Kent, Archaeol Cant 74 1960 55 (P Ashbee & G C Dunning) (Article in serial). SKE7946.

<4> F1 ASP 17-MAY-1963 (OS Card Reference). SKE42152.

<5> DOE(IAM) AMs Eng 2 1978 109 (OS Card Reference). SKE41412.

<6> Phillips, A., 1963, Field report for monument TR 14 SE 3 - May, 1963 (Bibliographic reference). SKE5407.

<7> English Heritage, 1991, Bowl Barrow 50m north of Bowick Lodge East of Boyke Wood, RSM 12824 (Scheduling record). SKE7947.

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

Sources and further reading