(Disclaimer: this does include the ‘R’ word, but is in the interests of understanding later views of the barrow.)
The Somerset historic environment record says that the mound lay for a time within a Roman settlement. Roman pottery and a coin were found inside in a 1907 excavation (so the Romans could have dug into it – though the articles might have fallen in from yet another digging episode). The barrow contained the remains of many people – a mixture of bones in the centre (said to be Neolithic) and a number of secondary inhumations with beakers and a flint knife. The mound itself was built mainly of large stones (up to 2.5ft long), with a circular drystone enclosure at the centre.
It kind of raises thoughts about why they chose to settle right next to the barrow. Local ‘Romanised’ families keeping on the good side of local ancestors? Handy for a spring? Didn’t even notice it? I don’t know. But lots of people have used handy barrows as asource of stone – these people apparently didn’t.