Long barrow 600m south of Preston Grange

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 important concentrations of monuments of this type in the country. This example is regarded as important as it retains high archaeological potential including the probability of early Medieval burials associated with the mound.

Details

The monument includes a long barrow, surviving as a low earthwork, situated just below the crest of a west-facing slope. The mound, now under cultivation, has been partly damaged by former quarrying and is adjacent to a deep hollow. The barrow mound is orientated NE-SW, rectangular in plan with maximum dimensions of 74m long by 30m wide. Spreads of chalk rubble in the plough soil indicate the original ends of the mound as well as the limit of the SE side. The mound survives to a maximum height of 0.6m. Flanking quarry ditches run parallel to the mound on its SE and NW sides and survive to a width of 7.5m. An account of the barrow in 1893 states that it had been levelled nearly to the ground before the end of the 19th century and refers to the discovery of "an abundance of bones" and "many weapons described by inhabitants of the village". Partial excavation of the mound towards the end of the 19th century produced a portion of horn, probably of red deer. A spearhead recovered from the mound has been identified as Saxon. This indicates the likely presence of early Medieval burials in or around the mound.

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:

12106

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Hawkes, C F C, A Saxon Spearhead and Scaramax from Preston Candover, (1940)
Smith, I F, Long Barrows in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, (1979)
Wilson, S, Hampshire Notes and Queries in Preston Candover, Vol. VII, (1893)

End of official list entry

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