Monument record IKL 005 - Bernersfield Farm

Round barrow, part of group of (?8) - see IKL 002-004, 049 and 072-074. Recorded on Hodskinson's map of Suffolk 1783 (S1) and OS 1st edition, 1843 (S2).
July 1866: Excavation by Henry Prigg of `largest of the four tumuli'. Possibly this barrow? Details in (S8). Henry Prigg excavated each of the four (recognisable) barrows, IKL 003, 004, 005 & ? 073 in July 1866 (largest)(S8), Autumn 1871 (two tumuli adjacent to the `westernmost of the group') and September 1872 (westernmost)(S8)(R2). It is not clear which was the `largest', but this is presumed to be IKL 005, or the `westernmost' (either 003 or 073), which is presumed to be IKL 073. No details of the excavations of the two adjacent tumuli east other than a reference to Henry Prigg junior - "who, it may be remembered, at this time last year explored the two adjacent ones of the series" (S9)(R2).
1935: 30-35 yards diameter, 2-3 ft high, grass covered on open heath (S3).
1954: Slight mound, 1.5 ft high. Marked by change of vegetation and many flint chippings (S7). `Flint flakes found', undated record on former HER card.
1962: 35.0m diameter, less than 0.3m high. Virtually destroyed by ploughing, very spread an reduced. Turf covered (S4). 70 ft diameter, 2 ft high (S5). 1976: 35.5m diameter, 0.39m high. Under grass. Shows as green ring in field. Very low and spread (S5)(S6).
1977: Virtually destroyed but preserved as rough area of turf, 30.0m square in arable land. Vague mound measures approximately 29.0m diameter by 0.2m high (S4).
1981: 70ft diameter, only 18 inches high (S5).
April 1998: Scheduled area revised - see (S5).

June 2019. Breckland National Mapping Programme.
A Bronze Age Round Barrow can be seen as an earthwork on aerial photographs (S10-S11). The Barrow can be seen as an earthwork in the 1950s (S10) with a possible ditch surrounding the mound along the south and east sides. On recent (2018) imagery (S11) the barrow can be seen in a possibly fenced area separate from the arable cultivation surrounding the barrow. The barrow can be seen as low earthwork on the recent imagery and is in close proximity to a previously recorded barrow to the south west (IKL 004) and possible ploughed out barrow to the west (IKL 074). As a result of a lack of control points for rectification of the photographs, some of the aerial photographs have been secondary transformed which may have slightly affected the locational accuracy of the mapping.
J.Powell (Norfolk Historic Environment Service), 19th June 2019.