MDE978 - Bronze Age barrows on Fullaford Down (Monument)

Tumulus (NR) (TWICE) A SS 692 380 (outside Park boundary) B SS 6940 3800. [1] Two bowl barrows without ditches and under grass. (A. Diameter 14.0 metres height 0.2 metres. Vague and spread with slight indications of a hollow on top.) B. Diameter 21.0 metres height 1.1 metres. Ploughed down and spread. No trace of mutilation. [2] High Bray 1, 2 and 2a. High Bray 1 is 11 paces in diameter and 1/2 a foot high. High Bray 2 is 21 paces in diameter and 2 and 1/2 feet high. Both were visted by Grinsell in 1959. High Bray 2 was visited by Rainbird Clarke in 1938 when the land was put to arable use. High Bray 2a is a bowl barrow (SS 6923 799?) 14 paces in diameter and 1 foot high. It was visited by C Whybrow in July 1970. [3] (A. SS 6922 3800. A very low amorphous ground swelling is all that remains of this barrow.) B. SS 6939 3800. A ploughed down, but otherwise undisturbed barrow 23.0 metres in diameter and 0.7 metres high. No trace of a ditch. (C. SS 6923 3799. No evidence of a barrow remains in this area.) Both fields in which the barrows lie are subject to periodic ploughing. Published surveys 25 inch revised. [4] Barrow B is centred at SS 6940 3801. It lies in enclosed land, which has been regularly improved, on Fullaford Down. It is a ploughed down, smoothed, roughly circular mound between 19.5 and 21.5 metres in diameter, and 0.5 metreshigh. There is no indication that it has been excavated, nor is there any sign of illicit digging or disturbance. The barrow's topographic position, on the northeast to southwest saddle of Fullaford Down, gives it an open aspect both westwards, and also to the east-south-east into an un-named combe on the north side of Silkwood Top. Some 110 metres to the northeast of B, at SS 6947 3811, is an elongated mound about 16 metres in diameter and 0.3 metres high. It lies in the corner of the field and has been confused by farm access into the field and by a ? headland bank. The feature may represent another barrow in the group, but may equally be the result of plough build up in the corner of the field. A confident assessment of it cannot be made. Barrows A and C were not investigated. [5,6] Barrow B is clearly visible on aerial photographs of the area, but there is no trace of A or C. [7,8] The Scheduled Monument Condition Assessment of 2009 gave the site a survival score of 0. [9] The site was surveyed in April 2015 as part of the 2015 Exmoor Scheduled Monument Condition Assessment. It was given a survival score of 0. [10] Monument record reviewed as part of NRHE to HER pilot project. [11,12] Analysis of LiDAR data in 2024 suggested the presence of four further features, possibly additional barrows within the group. They are aligned with the existing barrow B, extending north eastwards. The furthest east feature may represent a paired set of smaller barrows rather than a single larger feature. They are all heavily eroded.[13] Mastermap data depicts the scheduled barrow of the group at SS69393800 [14]