Pigeon House long barrow

Overview

Heritage Category: Scheduled Monument

List Entry Number: 1003203

Date first listed: 17-Jul-1961

Location

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

National Grid Reference: SY 62758 92521

Summary

Long barrow 730m SSE of Pigeon House.

Reasons for Designation

Long barrows were constructed as earthen or drystone mounds with flanking ditches and acted as funerary monuments during the Early and Middle Neolithic periods (3400-2400 BC). They represent the burial places of Britain's early farming communities and, as such, are amongst the oldest field monuments surviving visibly in the present landscape. Where investigated, long barrows appear to have been used for communal burial, often with only parts of the human remains having been selected for interment. Certain sites provide evidence for several phases of funerary monument preceding the barrow and, consequently, it is probable that long barrows acted as important ritual sites for local communities over a considerable period of time. Some 500 examples of long barrows and long cairns, their counterparts in the uplands, are recorded nationally. They represent one of the few types of Neolithic structure to survive as earthworks, and are comparatively rare and of considerable age and longevity as a monument type.

Despite reduction in the height of the mound through cultivation the long barrow 730m SSE of Pigeon House will retain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to its construction, longevity, territorial significance, social organisation, funerary and ritual practices and overall landscape context.

Details

This record was the subject of a minor enhancement on 15 December 2015. This record has been generated from an "old county number" (OCN) scheduling record. These are monuments that were not reviewed under the Monuments Protection Programme and are some of our oldest designation records.

The monument includes a long barrow situated on a gently north facing slope overlooking the distant valley of the River Frome. The long barrow survives as a slightly stony rectangular mound aligned from north west to south east which measures approximately 45m long, 19m wide and up to 1.2m high. The side ditches normally associated with long barrows are preserved as entirely buried features.

Other archaeological remains in the vicinity are scheduled separately.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number: DO 35

Legacy System: RSM - OCN

Sources

Other
PastScape Monument No:-453613

Legal

This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.