Summary
Long barrow called Wood Barrow 895m WNW of Raybrook Barn.
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. As one of the few types of Neolithic structure to survive as earthworks, and due to their comparative rarity, their considerable age and their longevity as a monument type, all long barrows are considered to be nationally important.
Despite reduction in the height of the mound through past cultivation the long barrow called Wood Barrow, 895m WNW of Raybrook Barn, survives comparatively 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.
History
See Details.
Details
This record was the subject of a minor enhancement on 24 September 2015. The 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.
This monument includes a long barrow situated on the upper slopes of an east facing ridge overlooking the valley of the River Coln. The barrow survives as a roughly rectangular mound aligned north to south and measuring up to 65m long, 30m wide and 0.7m high with its side ditches preserved as entirely buried features. The mound has several protruding scattered stones. Allegedly at some time before 1779 a large standing stone on the mound was removed to reveal many human bones.
