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Summary

Bowl barrow to north of Farway Castle, forming part of a barrow cemetery on Farway Hill.

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1010267: Bowl barrow 320m north west of Farway Castle, forming part of a dispersed barrow group on Farway Hill

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SY19NE/13/1
• Old SAM Ref: 24967

Monument Type(s) and Dates

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

Full description

Fox, A., 1948, The Broad Down (Farway) Necropolis and the Wessex Culture in Devon, 17 (Article in Serial). SDV123165.

Barrow said to have been destroyed 'recently'.

Robertson, W. I., 1991, Two Cairns (Worksheet). SDV344789.

Site visit 1st September 1991. Possible remnant of a ditch, under dense bracken. 10 metre radius (half circle identified). Possibly a tractor rut.

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; 2nd November 1992. Position not located. Either under natural woodland or pasture.

Gibbons, 1993, Untitled Source, MPP/AI 134693 (Un-published). SDV345691.

The monument is situated on the west side of the crest of the ridge. It lies in an unenclosed area of a field that has been allowed to revert to heath vegetation which obscure the outline of the barrow and makes it difficult to determine its size. The monument includes a bowl barrow which has been reduced in height as a result of past ploughing activity. It was recorded by Fox in 1948 as a cairn of flint, and by Grinsell in 1983, when it was described as measuring 3.7 metres diameter and 0.4 metres in height. In view of the previous underestimation of the size of the neighbouring barrow whch has also been reduced by ploughing, the monument is taken to be 11 metres in diameter and 0.3 metres in height. There is no evidence of a ditch. It is believed that buried features and the old land surface remain intact below the mound.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport, 1995, Bowl Barrow 320m North West of Farway Castle, Forming Part of a Dispersed Barrow Group on Farway Hill (Schedule Document). SDV345692.

The monument is situated on the west side of the crest of the ridge, and includes a bowl barrow 11 metres in diameter and 0.3 metres in height. There is no evidence of a ditch. The barrow has been ploughed over in the past.

Ordnance Survey, 2010, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV344030.

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

Extensive significant problems i.e. under plough, collapse. Declining. Principal vulnerability scrub/tree growth.

Caine, C., 2015, Farway Barrow Cemetery, Farway Hill, Farway, East Devon: Test Pit Excavation (Report - Excavation). SDV365692.

Test pit excavations were carried out by AC archaeology in February 2015 on a Scheduled Barrow (no. 1010267) at SY 15909582 forming part of the Farway Hill cemetery. The excavations formed Stage 2 of a S17-funded project to investigate the barrow, which is included on English Heritage's Heritage at Risk Register. Stage 1, comprising geophysical surveys, a topographic survey, and an auger survey, failed to locate any earthwork or below-ground evidence for the barrow.

A total of four test pits was hand excavated across the barrow. These exposed a soil sequence comprising turf/leaf litter and topsoil, overlying the natural geology, which was consistent with the results of the Stage 1 auger survey. No evidence for archaeological deposits, features or finds was located, and it is concluded that the barrow has been completely ploughed away.

The ploughsoil/topsoil across the former barrow mound was shallow and varied slightly in depth (on average 120-210mm, excluding turf/leaf litter), but was deepest towards the eastern side of the barrow, probably due to the build-up of richer organic material from the scrub of the former sheep pen. Due to water ingress in test pits 3 and 4, test pits 1 and 2 provided the best observation of the topsoil ploughzone contact with the underlying ‘clay with flints’ natural. This was an abrupt boundary with no gradation between the topsoil and natural, indicating recent cultivation of the area. Due to the shallowness of the topsoil any further ploughing could impact the natural subsoil as well as on any negative archaeological features present within the remainder of the Scheduled Monument.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV8969 - Farway Barrow Cemetery, Farway Hill, Devon: Test Pit Excavations (Ref: ACD1079/1/2)

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