Long Barrow SE of Jackets Field

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 example near Jackets Field survives well and is considered to be of high archaeological potential, apparently not having been excavated or robbed in the past. It is also a member of a small group of such monuments connected with the Stour valley.

Details

The Long Barrow is situated on level ground at the top of the North Downs scarp overlooking the valley of the Great Stour. It is oriented SE-NW, with the SE end broader and surviving to a greater height. The most distinctive feature of the monument is the elongated earthen mound, measuring some 70m in length and 10-12m in width. It stands to a height of 2m above the surrounding area at the SE end, and 1m at the NW end. Less obvious but nevertheless discernible are two long but shallow depressions alongside the mound which are now no more then 20-30cm deep but which are the filled-in remains of two deep flanking ditches, the same length as the mound itself, from which earth and chalk was quarried to make the mound. No excavations appear to have taken place at this monument, but its form is distinctively that of a Neolithic burial mound. Similar examples which have been excavated have shown that a burial chamber containing the remains of a number of individuals can be expected at the eastern end of the monument. The surface of the adjacent footpath/track, where it lies within the constraint area, is excluded from the scheduling although the ground below remains included.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

12765

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Other
Darvill, T., MPP Single Monument Class Descriptions - Long Barrows, (1989)
Report for the DoE, Holgate, R, A Management and Research Design for the Kent Megaliths, (1981)

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