Monument Type(s):

• BOWL BARROW? (Bronze Age - 2600 BC to 700 BC)
• CREMATION CEMETERY? (Early Bronze Age to Roman - 2600 BC? to 410 AD?)
• MOTTE? (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1540 AD)

Summary

Scheduled Monument: A rather truncated Bronze Age burial mound, the damaged half of which has produced decorated cremation urns, this site has also in the past been interpreted as a Norman motte (earthwork castle), and is still marked as such on the OS map.

Related records: None recorded

Associated Finds

• FSA280 - BURIAL URN (Late Neolithic to Late Bronze Age - 2350 BC? to 700 BC)

Associated Events

• ESA2885 - 1856 excavation
• ESA2886 - 1974 field observation by the Ordnance Survey

Description

Large round barrow, the NE part cut away by road and excavation. Urn and burnt bones found before 1872. Wright considered it to be Roman. The finds are now lost <1a>
Listed by Hogg and King as a Norman Castle, but the site was not visited and classification apparently just based on VCH <1b>
Much mutilated fragment of a mound 2.8m high had an original diameter of some 18m. There is no trace of a ditch, and it is now incorporated into the garden of a farmhouse. Although it is difficult to explain the finding of an urn and burnt bones, the height and position of the mound suggest that it is a motte. OS FI 1974 <1>

Large round tumulus is thought by some to be Roman. Human bones found in 1872 or earlier. The NE portion was cut into by road excavations. it rises from the supporting roadside wall <2>

Barrow at Eaton, rose above corner of road, partly cut away. Found, on what appeared to be the original surface of ground, about two thirds of the height of the tumulus above present road, burnt matter with human bones, and several rude, imperfectly burned urns, ornamented with zig-zag patterns. Fragments of these urns which were all placed mouth downwards, were all placed mouth downwards, were collected and have been preserved by the Rev J Rogers of the Home, at a short distance from the tumulus. <3>

Scheduled as a bowl barrow in 1999. Scheduling description: ->

-> The monument includes the earthwork and buried remains of a Bronze Age bowl barrow situated on level ground within a valley 180m south of the River Onny. From this location there are extensive views of the surrounding countryside, especially the Long Mynd to the east. ->

-> The barrow mound was originally circular, and about 30m in diameter. The southern half of the mound remains visible, the other half having been largely removed by road excavations in the mid-19th century. During the course of these excavations human bones, associated burnt material and several urns, ornamented with zigzag patterns, were found. The portion of the barrow mound that survives stands to a height of 2.5m. It is of earthen construction and incorporates some stone. ->

-> The road and the verge that lie immediately north of the surviving portion of the barrow mound is about a metre lower than the adjacent present ground level. A brick-built wall has been constructed alongside the verge and acts as a revetment for the barrow mound and the associated underlying deposits. ->

-> Although no longer visible at ground level, a ditch from which material was quarried during the construction of the barrow, lies adjacent to the surviving portion of the mound. This has become infilled over the years but survives as a buried feature, approximately 3m wide. ->

-> The retaining wall alongside the road verge is not included in the scheduling. The farm outbuilding which lies next to the barrow mound to the south together with the adjacent yard surface, where they impinge on the monument, all garden features and associated walls, fences and gates, are excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath all these features is included. <4>

Photographed during aerial survey in 2010. <5>

The mound is visible as an earthwork on aerial photographs and has been mapped by RCHME's Marches Uplands Mapping Project. It was not possible to clarify the interpretation or date of this feature based on aerial photographic evidence. NMR OS/73069 626-7 10-APR-1973. <6><7>

Sources

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