Notgrove long barrow

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

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1009157
Date first listed:: 30-Aug-1922

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1009157
Date first listed:: 30-Aug-1922
Date of most recent amendment:: 09-Mar-1995

Location

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

County:: Gloucestershire
District:: Cotswold (District Authority)
Parish:: Notgrove
National Grid Reference:: SP 09582 21201

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.

The Notgrove long barrow is a well known example which survives comparatively well and is known from partial excavation to contain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to the monument and the landscape in which it was constructed. This monument belongs to a wider group of long barrows commonly referred to as the Cotswold Severn type, named after the area in which they occur. This long barrow is unusual in that it was found to contain an inner dome-shaped burial chamber.

Details

The monument includes a chambered long barrow situated on the crest of a ridge with panoramic views in the area of the Cotswold Hills.

The monument, known as the Notgrove long barrow, has a mound orientated east-west, composed of small stones and trapezoidal in plan. It has maximum dimensions of 50m from east to west and 26m from north to south and a maximum height of c.1.5m.

Partial excavations conducted at the site by Witts in 1881 and E M Clifford in 1934-5 have caused the mound to become irregular in appearance. The excavations demonstrated that the mound was retained by a dry-stone revetment wall. The presence of an eastern forecourt (or a recess flanked by extensions of mound on either side) was also detected. The forecourt had dimensions of 15m by 8m.

Within the body of the mound there was found to be a dome-shaped chamber. This enclosed a cist containing the inhumation of an adult male. The chamber appears to have been an early construction and was sealed before the other features were constructed at the site.

There was also an inner gallery or passage which had an entrance on the eastern side of the mound adjacent to the forecourt. The passage was aligned east-west and had dimensions of 12m long by 2m. The gallery was found to contain an amulet, a bone implement and Neolithic pottery and it provided access into six chambers. The gallery led into an antechamber which in turn led into four side chambers offset from the gallery (two on either side) and an end chamber to the west. The side chambers were all found to contain human skeletal remains and other artefacts such as animal bones and pottery, while the two end chambers contained animal bones and Neolithic pottery. The entrance to the inner chamber was blocked during the later Neolithic period. Flanking the mound on either side is a ditch from which material was quarried during the construction of the monument. These have become infilled over the years but survive as buried features c.5m wide.

The finds from the excavations at the site are now held at Cheltenham Museum. Excluded from the scheduling are all fence posts, drystone walling and gates relating to the field boundaries, and also the information notice board, although the ground beneath is included.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features, considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:: 22869
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
O`Neil, H E, Grinsell, L V, 'Proc of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Arch Soc' in Gloucestershire Barrows, , Vol. 79, (1960), 86
O`Neil, H E, Grinsell, L V, 'Proc of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Arch Soc' in Gloucestershire Barrows, , Vol. 79, (1960), 86
O`Neil, H E, Grinsell, L V, 'Proc of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Arch Soc' in Gloucestershire Barrows, , Vol. 79, (1960), 86
O`Neil, H E, Grinsell, L V, 'Proc of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Arch Soc' in Gloucestershire Barrows, , Vol. 79, (1960), 86
O`Neil, H E, Grinsell, L V, 'Proc of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Arch Soc' in Gloucestershire Barrows, , Vol. 79, (1960), 86
O`Neil, H E, Grinsell, L V, 'Proc of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Arch Soc' in Gloucestershire Barrows, , Vol. 79, (1960), 86
O`Neil, H E, Grinsell, L V, 'Proc of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Arch Soc' in Gloucestershire Barrows, , Vol. 79, (1960), 86
O`Neil, H E, Grinsell, L V, 'Proc of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Arch Soc' in Gloucestershire Barrows, , Vol. 79, (1960), 86
O`Neil, H E, Grinsell, L V, 'Proc of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Arch Soc' in Gloucestershire Barrows, , Vol. 79, (1960), 86
O`Neil, H E, Grinsell, L V, 'Proc of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Arch Soc' in Gloucestershire Barrows, , Vol. 79, (1960), 86
O`Neil, H E, Grinsell, L V, 'Proc of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Arch Soc' in Gloucestershire Barrows, , Vol. 79, (1960), 86
O`Neil, H E, Grinsell, L V, 'Proc of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Arch Soc' in Gloucestershire Barrows, , Vol. 79, (1960), 86
O`Neil, H E, Grinsell, L V, 'Proc of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Arch Soc' in Gloucestershire Barrows, , Vol. 79, (1960), 86
Other
Details of excavations,
Details of finds from excavations,
Details of restoration (1951-64),
Details of restoration (1976),

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.