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Summary

A well-preserved bowl barrow

Full Description

The site consists of a bowl barrow situated in a prominent position on high ground to the north west of the village of Roxton and the junction of the Rivers Great Ouse and Ivel. The barrow mound stands amidst a wide area of cultivated fields and is a conspicuous local landmark. It is circular in plan, measuring approx 21m in diameter, and survives to a height of approx 1.7m, with steep sloping sides descending from a level area on the summit which measures 10m across.

The barrow, which is apparently unexcavated, is thought to be an outlying example associated with a pattern of Bronze Age barrows located along the gravel terraces flanking the River Great Ouse. Unlike the "Round Hill", however, most of these are only visible as cropmarks which have been recorded from the air. This distribution, which comprises some 200 monuments in the upper and middle sections of the Great Ouse valley, including a group of five on the north side of the junction of the Rivers Great Ouse and Ivel (approx 2km south east of the Round Hill). These were excavated in the early 1970s, prior to gravel extraction, and found to contain burials dating from c.1800 BC. A fieldwalking programme undertaken in the late 1970s identified a pattern of broadly contemporary worked flint which concentrated on this barrow group and extended up the side of the river valley to the west of Roxton. The limit of this survey area came within 500m of the Round Hill.

The site is a Scheduled Ancient Monument (No 27112). It has in the past been thought to be a windmill base or a Roman burial mound.

Bedfordshire & Luton Archives and Records Service Documents, BLARS: MA44/1, Enclosure Map, 1813 (Unpublished document). SBD10551.

Bedfordshire Magazine, Vol 8, 1961-1963, p 350 (Bibliographic reference). SBD10543.

HER Photograph Archive, F1312/15 (Photograph). SBD10506.

OS: TL 15, TL 15 NW 8 (Unpublished document). SBD11100.

English Heritage, SAM record form, No 27112 (Scheduling record). SBD10803.

Wadmore, 1920, Earthworks of Bedfordshire, pp 259-261 (Bibliographic reference). SBD10706.

1937, Bedfordshire Regional Planning Authority Report, p 187 (Unpublished document). SBD10783.

Protected Status:

• Scheduled Monument 1013521: Bowl barrow known as the "Round Hill", 440m WNW of College Farm
• SHINE: Bowl Barrow and enclosure cropmarks at Round Hill

Monument Type(s):

• MOUND (Late Neolithic to Late Bronze Age - 3000 BC to 701 BC)
• ROUND BARROW (Late Neolithic to Late Bronze Age - 3000 BC to 701 BC)

Associated Finds: None recorded

Associated Events: None recorded

Sources and Further Reading

Search results generated by the HBSMR Gateway from exeGesIS SDM Ltd.