MDE1060 - Bronze Age barrow on Challacombe Common (Monument)

(SS 6821 4278) Tumulus (NR) [1] (SS 6823 4278) A round barrow, 15 paces in diameter and 2 feet high. [2] The barrow is lying in moorland. It is 15.0 metres in diameter and on average 1.0 metre high. Published survey 25" revised. [3] A turf covered tussocky barrow, measuring 16.6 metres north to south by 15.6 metres west to east. The mound lies within rank pasture and is covered in coarse grass with patches of bracken and rushes spreading over it. The mound is 0.7 metres high, and has a summit diameter of 8.4 to 9.7 metres. On the eastern lip of the summit is a spread lump of material which is almost certainly the product of an excavation. It represents a spoil heap placed on the eastern side of a north to south trench. Other evidence for excavation is a sharp sided ditch, 0.3 metres deep, around the northern side of the mound. On the western side, the outer lip of the ditch has a lobe of spoil 4.3 metres long and 0.2 metres high upon it. The ditch was probably dug by excavators either to define the mound or to establish whether it was bounded by a kerb. [4] The barrow described above is clearly visible on a number of aerial photographs. It is situated in a prominent position on a west facing spur close to the summit of Challacombe Common. No evidence of disturbance or excavation is visible on aerial photographs, and the barrow appears relatively well preserved. [5-6] An intact round barrow. Scheduled with four others and an enclosure, on Challacombe Common. [7] The Scheduled Monument Condition Assessment of 2009 gave the site a survival score of 9. [11] The site was surveyed in March 2015 as part of the 2015 Exmoor Scheduled Monument Condition Assessment. It was given a survival score of 9. [12] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [13]