Long barrow 300m north-east of Albany Place

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 180 long barrows of Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset form the densest and one of the most significant concentrations of monuments of this type in the country. Despite partial excavation in the 19th century, the Albany Place long barrow survives comparatively well and has potential for the recovery of archaeological remains and environmental evidence relating to the period in which the monument was constructed. The importance of the site is enhanced by the fact that other long barrows survive in the area giving an indication of the scale and intensity with which the area was occupied during the Neolithic period.

Details

The monument includes a long barrow set on a floodplain 90m south of the River Wylye. Like other long barrows in the area the barrow mound is ovate and orientated on the same alignment as the river, in this case ENE-WSW. The barrow mound is 30m long, 15m wide and stands to a height of c.4m. The site was partially excavated by Cunnington towards the end of the 19th century. Finds included a layer of charred wood and ashes as well as a cist or stone box 0.7m in diameter containing an ox head and small deer antler. Although no longer visible at ground level, ditches from which material was quarried during construction of the monument, flank the NE and SW sides of the mound. These have become infilled over the years but survive as buried features c.5m 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.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

12344

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine in Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine: Volume No 38, Vol. No 38, (), 412-4

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.

Print the official list entry