The four criteria for assessing class importance apply to round barrow cemeteries as follows:

Period (currency): Long-lived. The tradition of constructing and using round barrow cemeteries spanned most of the Bronze Age, a period of more than a millennium, even though not all individual cemeteries were in use throughout the whole period.

Rarity: Common. It is estimated that between 300 and 500 examples have been recorded in England to date, mostly in southern counties.

Diversity (form): Medium. Three main types of round barrow cemetery can be identified on the basis of ground-plan and the arrangement of individual barrows within the cemetery.

Period (representativity): High. Round barrow cemeteries span a period for which the number of known monument classes is not especially great. It may also be noted that the range of components present in recorded round barrow cemeteries is highly representative of the main classes of burial monument used during Bronze Age times.

Assigning scores to these criteria following the system set out in the Monument Evaluation Manual, barrow cemeteries yield a Class Importance Value of 33. This lies about mid-way up the range of possible values (max.= 64), reflecting the long currency and fairly common occurrance of the class. Examples representing all three types and variations in size, and a good geographical spread, must be included in the sample of nationally important sites.