Long barrow 250m south of Ellen's Lodge in Shilcott Wood on the Ditchley Park Estate

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 long barrows are recorded in England. 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 long barrow south of Ellen's Lodge in Shilcott Wood survives well and will contain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to its construction and the landscape in which it was built. This is an example of a group of long barrows known collectively as the Cotswold Severn tombs, named after the area in which they occur.

Details

The monument includes a long barrow 250m south of Ellen's Lodge in Shilcott Wood on the Ditchley Park Estate. It is situated on a slight ridge running from east to west. The barrow mound, which is orientated north east to south west, measures 26m long, 14m wide and stands up to 1m high. The south western end of the mound has a flat facade while the mound tails off to the north east, indicating that the front of the barrow faced west. This end has been partially reduced and spread in the past but survives to a height of 0.5m. Flanking either side of the barrow mound was a quarry ditch, from which material was obtained during the construction of the mound. These are no longer visible at ground level but will survive as buried features c.4m wide and separated from the sides of the mound by a c.2m wide berm.

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:

21836

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Other
Title: Ordnance Survey 1:10560 Source Date: Author: Publisher: Surveyor: SP 31 NW
PRN 11,861, C.A.O., Mound in Shilctt Wood, Ditchley, (1976)
Scale 1:100 Copy in SMR, OXON., Leggatt, E H, Shilcott Wood. Ditchley. Mound at SP38042219, (1978)

End of official list entry

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