Long Barrow on Long Hill

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1005758
Date first listed:: 09-Jul-1952

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1005758
Date first listed:: 09-Jul-1952

Location

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

County:: Warwickshire
District:: Stratford-on-Avon (District Authority)
Parish:: Alderminster
National Grid Reference:: SP 25093 51624

Summary

Long Barrow 485m north east of Blue Lane Farm.

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 important. Despite reduction in the height of the earthworks through cultivation the long Barrow 485m north east of Blue Lane Farm survives comparatively well and will contain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to its construction, longevity, development, territorial and social significance, funerary and ritual practices and overall landscape context.

History

See Details.

Details

This record was the subject of a minor enhancement on 2 June 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. As such they do not yet have the full descriptions of their modernised counterparts available. Please contact us if you would like further information.

This monument includes a long barrow situated on the upper south west slopes of the prominent ridge called Long Hill close to the summit and overlooking the valley of a tributary to the River Avon. The long barrow survives as largely buried structures, features, layers and deposits with slight visible earthworks. The long barrow is aligned north east to south west and the visible rectangular mound measures approximately 20m long, 11m wide and 0.5m high and has rounded ends. The mound is surrounded by a very slight hollow of up to 3m wide representing the buried side ditches. The surrounding fields have produced quantities of contemporary flint artefacts.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:: WA 96
Legacy System:: RSM - OCN

Sources

Other
PastScape 333205
Warwickshire HER 1256

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 Culture, Media and Sport.