Long barrow 230m east of Chewton Plot
List Entry Summary
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.
Name: Long barrow 230m east of Chewton Plot
List entry Number: 1011524
Location
The monument may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
County: Somerset
District: Mendip
District Type: District Authority
Parish: Chewton Mendip
National Park: Not applicable to this List entry.
Grade: Not applicable to this List entry.
Date first scheduled: 19-Jul-1933
Date of most recent amendment: 11-Aug-1993
Legacy System Information
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
Legacy System: RSM
UID: 13884
Asset Groupings
This list entry does not comprise part of an Asset Grouping. Asset Groupings are not part of the official record but are added later for information.
List entry Description
Summary of Monument
Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.
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 230m east of Chewton Plot survives well and contains
archaeological and environmental evidence relating both to the monument and
the landscape in which it was constructed.
The monument is a rare example of a long barrow in an area which otherwise
contains a concentration of later burial monuments.
History
Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.
Details
The monument includes a long barrow orientated roughly northwest to southeast
and situated on level ground 230m east of Chewton Plot. It is visible as a
barrow mound 28m long by 12m wide and c.2.5m high when viewed from the north.
Although no longer visible at ground level, two parallel ditches, from which
material was quarried during the construction of the monument, lie on either
side of the mound to the north and south. These ditches have become infilled
over the years but survive as buried features c.3m wide.
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.
Selected Sources
Books and journals
Grinsell, L, 'Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeology and Natural Hist Soc' in Somerset Barrows Part II, , Vol. Vol 115, (1971), p. 101
Other
23252, (1991)
National Grid Reference: ST 61113 52907
Map
© British Crown and SeaZone Solutions Limited 2018. All rights reserved. Licence number 102006.006.
Use of this data is subject to Terms and Conditions.
The above map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. For a copy of the full scale map, please see the attached PDF - 1011524 .pdf
The PDF will be generated from our live systems and may take a few minutes to download depending on how busy our servers are. We apologise for this delay.
This copy shows the entry on 27-Apr-2018 at 07:26:44.
End of official listing