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Description

Reasons for Designation Saucer barrows are funerary monuments of the Early Bronze Age, most examples dating to between 1800 and l200 BC. They occur either in isolation or in barrow cemeteries (closely-spaced groups of round barrows). They were constructed as a circular area of level ground defined by a bank and internal ditch and largely occupied by a single low, squat mound covering one or more burials, usually in a pit. The burials, either inhumations or cremations, are sometimes accompanied by pottery vessels, tools and personal ornaments. Saucer barrows are one of the rarest recognised forms of round barrow, with about 60 known examples nationally, most of which are in Wessex. The presence of grave goods within the barrows provides important evidence for chronological and cultural links amongst prehistoric communities over a wide area of southern England as well as providing an insight into their beliefs and social organisation. As a rare and fragile form of round barrow, all identified saucer barrows would normally be considered to be of national importance. The barrow west of All Saints Church, Westborough survives as a substantial and well preserved example of a rare form of this class of monument. Valuable archaeolgical deposits, including funerary remains, will be preserved beneath the mound and the bank and in the fills of the ditch. These will illustrate the date and function of the monument and the method of its construction. Environmental evidence retained in the same deposits will indicate the appearance of the landscape in which the monument was set. Although there is no public access, the monument is clearly visible from a bridleway which crosses an adjacent field to the north. Details The monument includes the earthwork remains of a Bronze Age fancy barrow of a type known as a saucer barrow, located 20m above sea level on the southern outskirts of the village of Westborough, about 100m to the west of All Saints' Church in an area of level pasture enclosed by a loop of the River Witham. The central mound is approximately 30m in diameter, standing to a height of c.1.8m. Although well preserved, the profile falls away somewhat to the west, and on the summit it is broken by three irregular depressions which are thought to indicate the former presence of trees. A single ditch some 3m wide is evident as a shallow depression around the southern, western and northern arcs of the mound, with a bank of a similar width, standing to a maximum of 0.5m following its outer curve. Both ditch and bank level out to the east, and the extreme eastern arc of the bank has been degraded by the construction of the adjacent garden. The bank is broken by a 2m wide gap to the south but no matching causeway across the ditch is apparent. There are no records of archaeological investigations of the monument, and it is thought to be largely undisturbed. The telegraph pole and hawser support are excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath them is included.

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