Monument record BGL 003 - Brightwell Heath

Round Barrow (site of) (S1).
1935: Bracken covered bowl barrow. No visible ditch (S2). 1953: Mound 24.4m x 21.3m and 1.45m high, no surface indications of a ditch. Excavated by R Gilyard-Beer 1953 for the Ministry of Works prior to its destruction for farming purposes. Beneath the centre of the mound was a large pit, 0.84m deep, the upper edges of which were not completely traced. At 0.38m deep there was a shelf which delimited the lower part of the pit, this was oblong, 0.84m wide at the N end, tapering to 0.7m wide at the S end and 3.35m long. On the walls and floor of this lower section was a dark brown stain, partially disturbed by rabbit holes, which is suggested to have been the remains of closely woven wickerwork, 0.02-0.03m thick. Lying lengthways on this was a more solid stain, perhaps representing a wooden object, perhaps 1.04m long, thickest at the S end (S3)(R1). 1962: No trace remains of this barrow beyond a sandy patch upon a slight natural rise of the ground (S4).
1977: Nothing visible (S5).
1989 & 1992: Visible as cropmark (S6).
1994: Site descheduled (S7).
A Round Barrow of probable Bronze Age date is visible as an earthwork and cropmark on Brightwell Heath, Brightwell parish, on aerial photographs from the 1930s onwards, centred on circa TM240444. The visible earthworks have been transcribed but little detail can be added to the record, other than to say the barrow is not visible as a cropmark on the 1992 images quoted in S6. (S6, S8-9)
Formerly Scheduled.