Long barrow 580m south-west of Woodcott Church

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. The Woodcott Church barrow is particularly important as it survives well and, with no evidence of formal excavation, has considerable archaeological potential.

Details

The monument includes a long barrow 580m SW of Woodcott Church and situated just off the crest of a west-facing slope. The mound survives as an earthwork orientated NE-SW and of rectangular plan. The barrow mound is 70m long and 20m wide and survives to a height of 1.5m. Flanking ditches, from which mound material was quarried, are situated to either side of the mound. These survive to a width of 12.5m, the southern ditch preserved as an earthwork where it is bounded by a steep lynchet running parallel with the mound, and the northern ditch as a buried feature, having been infilled over the years.

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:

12084

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Smith, I F, Long Barrows in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, (1979)

End of official list entry

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