See important guidance on the use of this record.

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

Summary

Barrow forming part of a dispersed barrow group on Farway Hill. Originally about 12m diameter and less than 1m high, the barrow has been damaged by its closeness to a trackway. It also appears to have been used as part of a defensive system during the Second World War as there was [1993] an intrusion in its centre which contained some half-buried corrugated iron.

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1010269: Bowl barrow 210m north west of the Farway Common Road, forming part of a dispersed barrow group on Farway Hill

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SY19NE/30
• Old SAM Ref: 24969
• Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division: SY19NE5

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• BARROW (Constructed, Late Neolithic to Late Bronze Age - 3000 BC (Between) to 701 BC (Between))

Full description

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1957, SY19NE5 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV99861.

Barrow at SY16019677. Part of the Farway Barrow Cemetery.
Site visit 10th November 1975. Barrow 8.0m diameter, 0.9m high. Now completely overgrown with furze. The central pit has been filled with rubbish and an old boundary bank runs up to the mound on the north east and south west side.

Silverster, R., 1977, Barrow on Farway Hill (Worksheet). SDV97647.

Site visit 27th April 1977. Cairn in poor condition on the west side of the track alongside the plantation in implanted area. Heavily overgrown with gorse. Sides scooped out, central hollow used as scrap dump. Gutted by home guard(Fox, as O. S. Correspondent 1949. Not mentioned in Fox, PDAS 1948).

Grinsell, L. V., 1983, The Barrows of South and East Devon (Article in Serial). SDV337013.

Site visit 17th July 1972. On Honiton boundary. Cairn, on west edge of path which bends round it. Ditch shown by waterlogged patches in path. Large hedge cutting. Diameter 7.5m and height 0.9m.

Simpson, S. J. + Noble, S., 1993, Archaeological Survey and Management Study of Areas on Gittisham Hill, Farway Hill, and Broad Down, East Devon (Report - Survey). SDV123162.

Site visit 3rd November 1992. Deteriorating mainly through use of the track which is truncating the mound and leading to erosion of the ditch. Dumping of scrap metal still visible.

Gibbons, 1993, Monument Protection Programme, 134695 (Un-published). SDV97650.

Site visit 30th November 1993. Bowl barrow with an original diameter of about 12m and height of less than 1m. There is no evidence of a ditch. The exposed peaty soil on the mound contains flinty stones, mainly small in size with some up to 15cm. The north-west sector of the mound is tangential to an old field bank, and a forestry track curves around the south-west side of the barrow. The barrow appears to have been used as part of a system of defence during the Second World War, as there is a large intrusion in the centre of the mound, 2.3m in diameter and 0.8m deep, which contains some half-buried corrugated iron. The profile of the barrow has been considerably modified in that soil from the edge of the mound has been heaped into the centre to heighten the bank around the central intrusion. A mature tree is growing on the south-east sector of the mound.

Exeter Archaeology, 2003-2004, East Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Archaeological Survey, Site No. 605 (Archive - Survey). SDV351568.

Barrow c.12m diameter and less than 1m high. Possible additional barrow adjacent, or record may refer to same feature (same NGR given). Scheduled Monuments.
SMR.

English Heritage, 2011, Heritage at Risk Register 2011: South West, 90 (Report - non-specific). SDV355280.

Condition and trend unknown. Principal vulnerability forestry.

Bluesky International, 2016, LiDAR DTM data (0.5m resolution) Blackdown Hills and East Devon AONBs: 3 transects, LIDAR SY1696 Bluesky International DTM 30-APR-2016, 04-MAY-2016 and 27-JUN-2016 (Cartographic). SDV359714.

A short curvilinear bank is visible as an earthwork.

Sims, R., Knight, S. & Houghton, E., 2020-2021, East Devon AONB Lidar Assessment and Desk based Assessment (Interpretation). SDV363914.

A short east to west orientated curvilinear bank circa 8m in length and 4m in width is visible as an earthwork on images derived from lidar data captured in 2016. The bank is situated in the approximate location of the recorded barrow, with the path curving around it, and may be its surviving remains.

Ordnance Survey, 2025, Mastermap 2025 (Cartographic). SDV366286.

Tumulus marked. Cut partly through by a trackway.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV8340 - East Devon AONB Lidar Assessment and Desk based Assessment

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