THREE Bronze Age burial mounds hidden by thick vegetation and trees have been uncovered at a nature reserve.

It took a team of experts and volunteers five days to unearth the mounds, known as round barrows, at Franchises Lodge, an RSPB woodland near Nomansland.

Round barrows were created in every part of England, mainly between 2200BC and 1100BC. More than 200 of these still survive in the New Forest today, and they can be identified as round mounds, often surrounded by a “ring ditch” from which the earth for the mound was dug.

The barrows at Franchises Lodge are Scheduled Ancient Monuments and currently on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register because of the scrub and tree cover. It is hoped the clearance work will result in the barrows being removed from the Heritage at Risk Register.

During the barrow clearance work, volunteers and RSPB staff were joined by New Forest National Park Authority (NPA) Community Archaeologist Hilde van der Heul.

Hilde said: “The burial mounds at Franchises Lodge are called bowl barrows, which are the most common form of Bronze Age round barrow. They would have been constructed anywhere from the Late Neolithic to the Late Bronze Age, probably covering single or multiple burials. These ones are grouped into what is called a barrow cemetery, which is not uncommon for the period.

“Despite scrub and tree growth these barrows have survived comparatively well. They contain important archaeological evidence relating to their construction, social organisation, ritual and funerary practices, as well as overall landscape context within the New Forest. It is really important that we keep them in good shape for future generations.”

Franchises Lodge is a 1,000-acre woodland, which was purchased by the RSPB in 2018. The NPA contributed £200,000 towards buying the land and offers ongoing support. Public access to the site is currently limited but there are plans to fully open up in future.

Anneka Schofield, the community volunteering development officer at Franchises Lodge, said: “The barrows were in unfavourable condition and largely or completely covered in thick rhododendron and conifer trees. We have cleared all three in line with Hilde’s advice for preserving the integrity of the barrows. Thank you to all our volunteers for their time and effort, and to Hilde for her advice.”