Long barrow 335m WNW of Starveall Farm

Summary

A Neolithic long barrow (burial mound) surviving as an oval earthwork up to 23m long, 7.5m wide and about 2m in height, surrounded by a buried quarry ditch. Long barrows are a rare resource, and this example has not been previously excavated. It survives relatively well and will contain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to its construction, longevity, territorial significance, social organisation, funerary and ritual practices and overall landscape context.

Reasons for Designation

The Neolithic long barrow about 335m WNW of Starveall Farm is scheduled for the following principal reasons:

* Survival: as a well-preserved earthwork representing the diversity of burial practices, beliefs and social organisation amongst early prehistoric communities;

* Potential: for the stratified archaeological deposits which will retain information on the individuals buried within and, as part of a wider multi-period landscape, it will also contribute to our understanding of the continuity and change in the use of this landscape since the Neolithic period;

* Group value: it is located in an area that has a concentration of prehistoric monuments and it has a strong spatial relationship with other scheduled monuments including further long barrows and round barrows.

History

The treatment, burial and commemoration of the dead have been a distinctive part of human life for millennia, and these activities have often left physical remains. The remains of the dead have been dealt with in remarkably varied ways in the past and it appears that, in the prehistoric period especially, only a small proportion of the population received a burial which has left traces detectable using current methods.

Long barrows and chambered tombs are the main forms of Neolithic funerary monument, with human remains deposited in chambers or mortuary structures. They were constructed from before 5,800 years ago (3800 BC) and new monuments were established throughout the 4th millennium BC. However, where they have been precisely dated their primary use for burial rarely lasted longer than about 100 years. Generally comprising long, linear earthen mounds or stone cairns, often flanked by ditches, they can be distinctive features in the landscape. They measure up to about 100m in length, 35m in width and 4m in height, sometimes taking a trapezoidal or oval shape.

The long barrow about 335m WNW of Starveall Farm stands on the west side of the A46 and south of Starveall Lane, orientated north-south. It is marked as a long barrow on the 1830 1 inch Ordnance Survey map, and shown on the tithe map of about 1840, with a field boundary running across its south-eastern end, apparently truncating it slightly. By the late C19 (shown on the Ordnance Survey map published 1882) it was enclosed by a low, dry-stone wall, about 1m high, in a rhomboid shape, which formed part of this field boundary. The wall has since collapsed or been removed, though the monument continues to conform to its rhomboid shape, which shows clearly on LIDAR and aerial photographs. Local limestone rubble evident at the surface of the margins of the barrow may be the remains of this wall, or part of the fabric of the mound. Field observations through the C20 (Historic Environment Record) indicate that the cutting back of the earthwork for the construction of the enclosing wall, and ploughing, have truncated the barrow on all sides, with the loss of up to 3m of the mound. The long barrow was first scheduled in 1949. The monument has not been subject to any archaeological investigation.

Details

A long barrow, of Neolithic date, within an arable field.

PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS
The monument includes the earthwork and buried remains of a long barrow situated just below an upland ridge.

DESCRIPTION
The monument survives as a roughly rhomboid, partially turf-covered earthwork up to about 23m in length, and increasing in width from about 6.5m at the north-east end to about 7.5m at the south-west end. The earthwork varies in height from about 1.7m to 2m. Although there is no visible evidence for a surrounding ditch from which the construction material was derived, it is considered to survive as a buried feature. The barrow overlooks the head of a valley of a tributary of the Little River Avon.

The earthwork was closely enclosed by a low stone wall in the C19 and part of the C20, perhaps involving cutting-back of the mound. This wall has since collapsed or been removed. Local limestone rubble evident at the surface of the margins of the barrow, where there is no turf cover, may be the remains of this wall, or part of the construction of the mound.

EXCLUSIONS
The post and rail fence which marks the boundary of the monument is excluded from the scheduling, but the ground beneath is included.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

SG 42

Legacy System:

RSM - OCN

Sources

Books and journals
Witts, G B, Archaeology Handbook for Gloucestershire, (1883), No. 103
O'Neil, H, Grinsell, LV, Gloucestershire Barrows, Lists: Long Barrows, Gloucestershire in Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, Vol. 79, (1960), 81

Other
South Gloucestershire Historic Environment Record 2081: Starveall Long Barrow, Bangel Wood, Hawkesbury

End of official list entry

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