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Summary

One of four bowl barrows north of the A11/A14 junction, part of the Chippenham barrow cemetery.

Monument Type(s):

• ROUND BARROW (Bronze Age - 2500 BC? to 701 BC?)
• MOUND (Bronze Age - 2500 BC? to 701 BC)
• BARROW (Bronze Age - 2500 BC? to 701 BC)

Associated Events:

• Aerial Investigation Mapping Project, East Cambridgeshire (Ref: P7767)

Protected Status:

• Scheduled Monument 1015246: Four bowl barrows N of the A11/A14 junction, part of the Chippenham barrow cemetery

Full description

1. 6 Barrows - 4 extant; 1 site of, 1 natural feature.
2. Shown on map as BA barrows.
3. Group of 6 tumuli, at present under crop so that full survey is impractible. The tumuli are clearly mis-sited on OS 6in. Barrow 'D' (Grid reference taken from <4>) - Bowl barrow 35,0m in diameter and 1,0m high.
5. 'D' A slight lift upon a natural rise in undulating chalk at present under plough. It measures overall c 34,0m in diameter by 0,4m high. Published 1:2500 survey revised on MSD.
6. The pipeline passed near this barrow. A watching brief was maintained, but nothing of archaeological interest was seen. It was noted, however, that the barrows are suffering from plough damage, the height having been reduced by c50cm since 1973.
7. One of four Bronze Age bowl barrows located within an arable field to the north of the junction of the A11 and the A14 (Newmarket bypass). The barrows are arranged in a broadly east-west alignment across the chalk escarpment to the north of Newmarket, separated by intervals of between 70m and 100m.
All four barrows remain unexcavated, although ploughing has reduced the mounds to low earthworks in the otherwise level field. This barrow lies some 70m to the north of the pumping station compound and measures 34m in diameter and c.0.4m high.
The barrows, which were first recorded in 1923, form part of a linear cemetery which included at least ten similar barrows spread over a distance of c.1.5km to the south of Chippenham Park (the Chippenham barrow cemetery). To the south and east, two barrows survive in small copses to the south of the A11 at Hilly Plantation (PRN 04425) and The Rookery (PRN 04424). The furthest extant barrow (PRN 04467) lies to the south of the Ely to Bury St Edmunds railway line, some 1.1km to the east of the road junction. The most westerly feature of the cemetery lay c.230m south west of the pumping station. The east-west alignment of the barrow cemetery, together with the positions of further isolated barrows to the south west of Newmarket and to the north east near Kennett and Barton Mills, broadly correlates with the course of the Roman road between Great Chesterford and Thetford (the Icknield Way). The barrows were clearly located to be visible from a prehistoric precursor to this route.

10. The earthwork remains of a Bronze Age barrow is visible on remote sensing data and was mapped as part of the East Cambridgeshire Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (ECB6189). Located in fields between Hilly Plantation and Sounds Plantation and centred at TL 567300 266950, a circular mound is about 52 metres in diameter.

<1> CCC Archaeology, 1985?, SMR Primary Record Card (Unpublished document). SCB2342.

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

<3> ASP, 1968, OS field notes (Unpublished document). SCB16678.

<4> Martin, E. A. and Denston, C.B., 1976, The excavation of two tumuli on Waterhall Farm, Chippenham, Cambridgeshire, 1973. PCAS 66: 1-22 (Article in serial). SCB10858.

<5> PAS, 1981, OS field notes 1981 (Unpublished document). SCB16675.

<7> English Heritage, 1997, Four bowl barrows N of the A11/A14 junction, part of the Chippenham barrow cemetery, SAM 27180 (Scheduling record). SCB16792.

<8> 1958, OS 6 inch map (Map). SCB8962.

<9> 1972, OS 1:10000 map (Map). SCB8759.

<10> East Cambridgeshire AIM, 2020, Next Perspectives APGB Digital Terrain Model dated 24-JAN-2019, TL6766 (Geospatial data). SCB68989.

Sources and further reading

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