(SU 11427127) Tumulus (NR). (1) SU 11437127. Bowl barrow, diameter 12 paces, height 1'. Appears to have had a sarsen peristalith, of which 7 stones were still extant in 1950. Merewether says that the barrow was within a circle of stones (8 existing and holes from which 4 others had been removed) of about 9ft diameter. The barrow contained much rude pottery, charcoal, animal bones and teeth of deer, oxen and swine. (2-3)
SU 11427127. This denuded round barrow is 13m in diam and averages 0.5m high. Nine stones remain but only two are set on edge and these are 0.8m high.
Published 25" survey revised. (4) The barrow mound was mapped at 1:10,000 from APs by the Fyfield Down and Overton Down Mapping Project. No additional information was recorded. (5, 7) Listed as Avebury 64a by Grinsell (2), the barrow had earlier been recorded by Goddard as Winterbourne Monkton 17d, although Goddard was actually unsure as to which parish the monument was in. (6)
This site has been known as Penning or Avebury Down 'Stone Circle', but it's actually thought to be the remains of a bell barrow. It has a 3m berm between its mound and its (now faintly perceptible) ditch. Today there are six large sarsens which make up the 16m diameter circle, with a number of smaller stones towards the still slightly raised middle. However, when the site was visited by Merewether in the 1840s he made a sketch that showed 8 stones and four pits from which others had been removed. He found pottery fragments and animal bones on partially excavating the area. Only about 250 bell barrows are known in Britain and most are in Wessex, though ones with such large stones making up the peristalith are unusual around Avebury. They were generally the pretty impressive final resting places of important men from the community.
(details from EH's record of Scheduled Monuments on Magic)
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