Long barrow 700m south-west of Longwood House

Reasons for Designation

Long barrows were constructed as earthen or drystone mounds with flanking ditches and acted as funerary monuments during the early neolithic period (3000-2400bc). 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 partial human remains 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, unless very severely damaged, 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 regarded as important as it survives well and, with no formal excavation, has considerable archaeological potential.

Details

The monument includes a long barrow inconspicuously sited along a gentle NW-facing slope and currently situated in a plantation. The barrow mound has been partly disturbed by a chalk-pit and a transverse disturbance of uncertain origin. The monument is orientated SE-NW and tapers slightly in plan with the broader end to the SE where the mound rises to a height of 2m. The mound is 74m long, 21.5m wide at the east end and 18m wide at the west end. Flanking quarry ditches run parallel to the mound on the NE and SW sides and have an average width of 7.5m. These are not visible as surface features but do survive below-ground.

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:

12099

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Smith, I F, Long Barrows in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, (1979), 46

End of official list entry

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