Abstract/Summary

In July 2012 a slit trench was excavated on the south slope of the western of the two bell barrows on Horsell Common. This was to establish the state of preservation of the mound and obtain environmental samples from any surviving buried soil level and turves. The work was in advance of a programme to repair visible damage to the mound caused by various interventions in the past and continuing erosion from use of the footpath that crossed the monument. The trench showed that, at least in the area investigated, the mound had been disturbed on several occasions, probably initially by one or more antiquarian ‘treasure hunts’, later by the insertion of an iron sheet-lined Second World War foxhole/machine gun position and finally, more recently, by several small pits. Despite all this, parts of the turf stack core of the barrow remained intact and the environmental samples showed that the barrow was constructed on developed heathland and contained turves from a variety of sources.