If you have any comments or new information about this record, please email us.

Summary

The barrow forms part of a dispersed group which included at least 10 similar barrows, 7 of which still survive and are aligned broadly east-west over a distance of c.1.5km.

Monument Type(s):

• BOWL BARROW (Bronze Age - 2500 BC to 701 BC)

Associated Events:

• Fenland Survey Project, 1976-1989
• Aerial Investigation Mapping Project, East Cambridgeshire (Ref: P7767)

Protected Status:

• Scheduled Monument () 1015244: The Rookery bowl barrow, part of the Chippenham barrow cemetery, 250m south of Waterhall Farm
• Scheduled Monument () 1015245: Hilly Plantation bowl barrow, part of the Chippenham barrow cemetery, 500m south west of Waterhall Farm

Full description

<1> Tumulus (LB).

<2> <3> Shown on Fox's BA map as a round barrow under the heading "unexamined or destroyed without record of their contents having been preserved". Date unknown but situation suggests BA.

<4> This barrow lies deep in nettles and undergrowth but from the limited observation possible it appears to be a bowl barrow at least40,0m in diameter and 1,5m in height. Published 1:2500 correct.
<5> Earthwork barrow, 25.5m diameter. No ditch visible and no finds. Fenland Survey RN 58, CHI S3. Survives.
<6> The monument includes a Bronze Age bowl barrow located 250m to the south of Waterhall Farm, within a small copse immediately to the north of the A14 known as 'The Rookery'.
The barrow stands on the broad ridge of the low chalk escarpment. To the south a slight gradient descends in the direction of Newmarket, and to the north the ground gradually falls towards Chippenham and the fen edge around Worlington and Isleham. The barrow mound is roughly circular in plan and domed in profile, measuring c.355m in diameter and 1m in height.
It was first noted in C Fox's 'Archaeology of the Cambridge Region' (1923), at which time it was recorded as unexamined. There is no evidence of archaeological excavation since this time, and the mound is therefore assumed to remain undisturbed.
The barrow forms part of a dispersed group or cemetery which included at least ten similar barrows, seven of which stills survive (and are scheduled separately). The cemetery is aligned broadly east-west, extending over a distance of c,1.5km to the south of Chippenham Park. The Rookery barrow lies some 530m from the site of three barrows grouped together at eastern end of the cemetery, two of which were thoroughly archaeologically excavated in 1940 and the area subsequently ploughed; the third barrow is scheduled separately as SM27177; c.320m to the ESE lies a surviving barrow in Hilly Plantation (SM27179) - the nearest member of a group of barrows clustered near the junction of the A11 and A14, some of which were excavated in 1973 prior to the construction of the dual carriageways (the surviving ones of which comprise SM27180). This alignment, together with further outlying barrows near Newmarket and Barton Mills, broadly correlates with course of the Roman road between Great Chesterford and Thetford. The barrows are indicative of a far earlier prehistoric trackway following this route (the Icknield Way) across the edge of the chalk escarpment.

7. A circular Bronze Age barrow is visible on remote sensing data as earthworks and were mapped as part of the East Cambridgeshire Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (ECB6189). Located in The Rookery about 230 metres S of Waterhall Farm and centred at TL 67887 67010, a circular mound is about 50 metres in diameter.

<1> 1958, OS 6 inch map (Map). SCB9007.

<2> Fox, C., 1923, The Archaeology of the Cambridge Region, 30 (map) (Bibliographic reference). SCB1232.

<3> BRS, 1968, OS field notes (Unpublished document). SCB16672.

<4> Phillips, A S, 1968, OS field notes (Unpublished document). SCB16673.

<5> Hall, D.N., 1996, The Fenland Project, Number 10: Cambridgeshire Survey, The Isle of Ely and Wisbech, CHI S3 (Bibliographic reference). SCB16086.

<6> English Heritage, 1997, The Rookery bowl barrow, part of the Chippenham barrow cemetery, 250m south of Waterhall Farm, SAM 27178 (Scheduling record). SCB16790.

<7> East Cambridgeshire AIM, 2020, Next Perspectives APGB Digital Terrain Model dated 24-JAN-2019, TL6866 (Geospatial data). SCB68989.

Sources and further reading

Related records

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