A bell barrow is a prehistoric burial site comprising between one and four earthen or stone mounds set within a ditched enclosure, the mounds being separated from the ditch by a berm. The mounds each usually cover one or more burials. The most common type, the single bell barrows range in size from 10m to over 60m across, the average being about 40m in overall diameter. Bell barrows are found mainly in central southern England but a light scatter of examples have been recorded in other parts of southern and eastern England too.
Bell barrows are mainly recognised as upstanding field monuments through surface surveys. Positive identification usually requires the survival of the mound to a height of over 0.6m and some indication of the presence of the berm and ditch. The identification of the ditch may be assisted by aerial photographs, and occassionally it is possible to identify and authenticate bell barrows solely from aerial photographs where the position of the mound relative to its surrounding enclosure can be determined from cropmarks or soilmarks. Observations made by antiquaries in the 18th or 19th century are also important sources of information leading to the identification of bell barrows, as too are the detailed field surveys by Grinsell and others since the last war.
Bell barrows may easily be confused with some types of bowl barrow, especially when in denuded condition, but can be distinguished by the presence of the berm which is lacking among bowl barrows and the fact that bell barrows tend to be of more imposing proportions than bowl barrows. Some types of fancy barrow (principally those with large mounds) are also confusable with bell barrows, especially when the outer bank which is such a predominent feature of fancy barrows in southern England has been denuded to leave only the central mound, berm and ditch. Other possible sources of confusion are pillow mounds, moot mounds, clearance cairns, gun emplacements, building platforms, tree planting circles, and peat drying platforms.
Ring ditches present a special problem with reference to bell barrows because while they are certainly a key component of all types of bell barrow they are not peculiar to this class and on their own are not distinctive enough to allow positive identification.
Specifically excluded from the class of bell-barrows are those monuments previously regarded as bell barrows but which have artificially made-up berms or platforms around the barrows; such monuments fall squarely within the tradition of fancy barrows. Bell barrows very rarely have outer banks, most barrows with such banks being fancy barrows. In this context it may be noted, however, that what looks like an outer bank may sometimes be a product of cultivation stopping a short distance outside the bank to cause differential erosion and a "ploughing-edge" around a site. Also excluded are the square-ditched barrows of Iron Age date, Roman barrows and grave mounds of post-Roman date. For the purposes of evaluation, bell barrows forming components of round barrow cemeteries will be considered as part of the cemetery rather than as isolated monuments, although in preparing this description reference is made to examples in a variety of situations.
Bell barrows were primarily burial monuments of early and middle Bronze Age date constructed to celebrate and commemorate the dead. Culturally they are closely associated with the richly furnished burial traditions of the so-called Wessex Culture. As such, the function of bell barrows overlaps with that of several other classes of monument, for example bowl barrows, fancy barrows and ring cairns.