MSO6837 - Bronze Age barrow on the southeast spur of The Chains (Monument)

Small, well defined Bronze Age bowl barrow measuring 12.3 metres in diameter and 0.8 metres high with a flat topped profile and evidence of a surrounding ditch. Its top has been disturbed and has the remains of an iron feeding barrel.

[SS 7470 4140] Tumulus (NR) [1] Exmoor No. 3, a ditched barrow 13 paces in diameter and 2.5 feet high; there is a slight hollow in the centre. Visited by Grinsell 8th Sept 1959. [2] Scheduled. [3] This is a small bowl barrow with slight traces of a ditch. See ground photographs AO/65/128/3 and 4. Published survey (1/2500) revised. [4] No change. [5] This or Exmoor 2 (MSO6836) may have been called Exaborough in the 17th Century. [6] SS 7470 4141. A well defined barrow situated in rough grassland, about 475 metres above sea level, on the centre of the southeast spur of The Chains. The site is scheduled. The barrow is visible as a flat topped, turf covered, earth and stone mound, 12.3 metres in diameter and 0.8 metres high. It has been robbed from the southeast leaving a central hollow, 3 metres east to west by 2 metres and 0.4 metres deep, now containing the remains of an iron feeding barrel. Spoil from the hollow has been dumped on either side of the access trench in two heaps in the southwest and southeast quadrants. There spoil heaps have increased the original height of the barrow by some 0.4 metres. There are the traces of an encircling ditch, about 1.5 metres wide and 0.3 metres deep, visible as a shallow, rushfilled, hollow around the base of the mound. Surveyed at 1:2500. [7] The barrow described above is clearly visible on aerial photographs. However, there is no trace of the surrounding ditch as described by authority 7. The barrow lies in a marshy area, surrounded by a large area of post medieval peat cutting and drainage, and some evidence may have been destroyed by this activity. [9] The barrow is 0.75 metres high and 15 metres in diameter. [11] The barrow shows on aerial photographs as two small mounds and a small distinct circle of lighter vegetation. [12] In private ownership. [14] The Scheduled Monument Condition Assessment of 2009 gave the site a survival score of 3. [15] The site was surveyed in April 2015 as part of the 2015 Exmoor Scheduled Monument Condition Assessment. It was given a survival score of 3. [16] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [17] The barrow is labelled "Tumulus" on the 25 inch 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map. [18] It is also labelled on the 2022 MasterMap data. [19] The site is included in a 2023 Condition Survey [20]