NEW informative and protective boards for the two Bronze Age barrows at Whitehill Village Hall have been unveiled by the chairs of East Hampshire District Council and the Woolmer Forest Heritage Society.

The Parish of Whitehill is particularly rich in Bronze Age barrows over 4,000 years old – with at least 42 discovered in the parish so far.

Two of these are very visible in Whitehill within the curtilage of Whitehill Village Hall and are susceptible to inadvertent damage by careless car parking by visitors perhaps unaware of the importance of these heritage sites.

As one of the efforts to protect these barrows, Whitehill Village Hall committee has worked with the Woolmer Forest Heritage Society (http://woolmerforest.org.uk), Historic England, Hampshire County Council, East Hampshire District Council and Whitehill Town Council to finance, produce and install two interpretative panels.

These explain the importance of these two Bronze Age barrows to interested visitors, and have been strategically placed to be yet one more obstructive barrier to inadvertent parking which damages these important Scheduled Ancient Monuments protected by law.

“It is hoped that these further deterrents to parking will avoid the involvement of Hampshire Police to prosecute possible parking offenders,” said Bill Wain of the Woolmer Forest Heritage Society.

East Hampshire District Council chairman, and Whitehill councillor, Adam Carew – himself an authority on the area’s archaeological heritage – and the chair of the Woolmer Forest Heritage Society, Dr Chris Wain, jointly unveiled the boards at a simple ceremony.

They were watched by nearly 20 members of the heritage society, Whitehill Village Hall and the Deadwater Valley Trust, together with county councillor Andy Tree and the deputy mayor of Whitehill, Cllr Catherine Clark.