MSO8535 - Bronze Age bowl barrow on Winsford Hill (Monument)

At SS 88653425 is a feature discovered on aerial photographs by L V Grinsell [1]. It is a circular platform with a raised rim, overall height 0.6 metres. The inner slope of the rim is comparatively irregular and there has undoubtedly been some digging in the interior of the platform. This suggests that the feature is a bowl barrow, and that its present apprearance has been caused by the robbing of material from its top and centre. A short scarp to the southwest may be a fragment of an associated ditch. But the impresssion that a ditch completely encircled the mound is an illusion caused by a sheep track. Surveyed at 1:2500. [2] SS 8865 3425. Winsford 6. Bowl barrow listed, 15 paces diameter and 2 feet high. [3] (SS 8864 3425) Tumulus (NR) [3] A robbed barrow at SS 8864 3425. The description given by [2] gives some clue to the curious form of this monument. However, it is clearly a barrow, but has been heavily disturbed. The barrow comprises a circular earth covered, stony mound 15.5 metres in diameter and 0.5 metres high, the summit of which has been disturbed and robbed in such a way as to leave a rim of material around its outer edge, with a sharp inner facing scarp, which is reminiscent of a ringbank. Subsequent to this activity, a kidney shaped pit measuring 3.5 metres by 2.7 metres and 0.4 metres deep has been dug into its centre. A spread of spoil surrounds this pit. The barrow lies within a former field system of low earthen banks and ridge and furrow, and this ridging appears to butt up against the barrow. On the north and east sides are traces of what appears to be a ditch around the barrow. This is best explained, not as an original feature, but rather as the result of material robbed from the barrow summit being thrown outwards over the ends of the ridge and furrow, creating the illusion of a fragmentary ditch scarp. Furthermore, a scarp runs off the northwest side of the barrow and this too can be explained as part of the later field system or robbing. [5] Scheduled on 6th October 2003. [6] The barrow is covered by bracken and is invisible from even a short distance. It has a hollow centre. [7] Discovered on aerial photographs. Circular bank with round mound in centre. Second mound to the northeast. [1,8-9] The Scheduled Monument Condition Assessment of 2009 gave the site a survival score of 7. [10] The site was surveyed in March 2015 as part of the 2015 Exmoor Scheduled Monument Condition Assessment. It was given a survival score of 7. [11] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [14]