Monument record BGL 004 - Brightwell Heath (BA)

Round Barrow (site of)(S1).
1935: Tree covered bowl barrow, 30 yards diameter, 3 and a half feet high. No visible ditch (S2).
1953: Fairly low mound, built on a gradual rise, much disturbed by military slit trenches, 32.3m x 30.2m and 0.91m high. Excavated 1953 by R Gilyard- Beer for the Ministry of Works, prior to its destruction for farming purposes. Near the centre an oval pit was found, 81cm x 71cm and 61cm deep, the bottom covered with a 20cm thick layer of oak charcoal, the sides of the pit reddened by fire. Above the charcoal was a layer of brown sand with charcoal and burnt bone. At the W end a collared urn had been inserted, upright, filled with charcoal and burnt bone - contents yielded C14 date of 1770 +/- 130 bc (NPL 133). Over this an initial small mound, approximately 19.8m in diameter and 0.61m high, was built. Surface of this mound showed signs of burning and contained oak and alder charcoal. On the SE side two un-urned cremations were deposited: the one of a male over 20, buried with a flint plano-convex knife; the other fragmentary. This mound was then covered by more clean sand to make the finished barrow. This upper mound contained an unassociated pottery cup; a miniature collared urn in a shallow hollow; fragments of two collared urns (one mouth downwards) associated with a little charcoal and cremated bone; and an un-urned cremation in a hole 30cm diameter and 23cm deep; an Iron Age pottery cup in a hole 20cm diameter and 23cm deep; and two Iron Age sherds. A few small Neolithic and Beaker sherds were found on the old ground surface. No ditch was found (S3)(R1). 1962: Ploughed out, no remains (S4).
1977: Nothing visible (S5).
1994: Site descheduled (S6, formerly 75b).
In Foxhall parish following boundary change.