The four criteria for assessing class importance apply to unenclosed Bronze Age urnfields as follows:
- Period (currency): Long lived. Radiocarbon dates suggest that unenclosed Bronze Age urnfields were in use from the late 3rd millennium BC through to the 7th century BC, although they were most commonly used between c1200-c1000 BC.
- Rarity: Rare. Around 480 burial sites with middle Bronze Age urns are known from southern England, only c16% (approx 77) of which are unenclosed urnfields (Ellison 1981). This is probably only a small fraction of those which originally existed.
- Diversity (form): Medium. Three types of unenclosed Bronze Age urnfield have been identified at present.
- Period (representativity): Very High. Unenclosed Bronze Age urnfields represent one of a restricted number of monuments characteristic of the Bronze Age, and as a major burial rite directly associated with contemporary settlements, provides information on society, economy and the population of this period.
Assigning scores to these criteria following the system set out in the Monument Evaluation Manual, Unenclosed Bronze Age urnfields yield a Class Importance Value of 45 which lies about two-thirds of the way up the range of possible values (max. = 64), reflecting the long currency of use, the rarity and the representativity of the class. Examples representing both types and of varying date should be included in the sample of nationally important sites. Since many sites are destroyed upon discovery, the choice of extant examples is limited.