Long barrow 700m west of Bride's Farm

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. This example is important as it is one of several monuments in the immediate area. Such groups rarely survive.

Details

The monument includes a long barrow situated on the shoulder of a plateau and covered by trees and scrub in an area of arable cultivation. Although much of the barrow mound survives as an earthwork, part of it was damaged by quarrying before 1866. The mound is orientated SE-NW and is about 50m long by 20m wide, the NW and SE ends of the mound being under cultivation. It appears curved in plan and survives to a maximum height of 1m. Flanking quarry ditches run parallel to the mound on the north and south sides. The southern ditch survives beneath the track which runs adjacent to the mound, and the northern ditch in an arable field. In the medieval period the mound was a landmark on the boundary between the tithings of West and East Martin.

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:

12097

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Smith, I F, Long Barrows in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, (1979)
Lane Poole, EH, Damerham and Martin: a study in local history, (1976)
Peacock, E, ms no. 190 in the collections for the parochial history of Wilts in History Of The Parish Of Martin, (1866)

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