Reasons for Designation
Long barrows were constructed as earthen or drystone mounds, generally with
flanking ditches. They acted as funerary monuments during the Early and Middle
Neolithic periods (3400-2400 BC), representing the burial places of Britain's
early farming communities, and as such are amongst the oldest field monuments
surviving 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 activities preceding the construction of the barrow mound,
including ditched enclosures containing structures related to various rituals
of burial. It is probable, therefore, that long barrows acted as important
spiritual sites for their local communities over considerable periods of time.
The long barrows of the Lincolnshire Wolds and their adjacent regions have
been identified as a distinct regional grouping of monuments in which the
flanking ditches are continued around the ends of the barrow mound, either
continuously or broken by a single causeway towards one end. More than 60
examples of this type of monument are known; a small number of these survive
as earthworks, but the great majority of sites are known as cropmarks and
soilmarks recorded on aerial photographs where no mound is evident at the
surface.
Not all Lincolnshire long barrows include mounds. Current limited
understanding of the processes of Neolithic mortuary ritual in Lincolnshire is
that the large barrow mound represents the final phase of construction which
was not reached by all mortuary monuments. Many of the sites where only the
ditched enclosure is known have been interpreted as representing monuments
which had fully evolved mounds, but in which the mound itself has been
degraded or removed by subsequent agricultural activity. In a minority of
cases, however, the ditched enclosure will represent a monument which never
developed a burial mound.
As a distinctive regional grouping of one of the few types of Neolithic
monuments known, these sites are of great value. They were all in use over a
great period of time and are thus highly representive of changing cultures of
the peoples who built and maintained them. All forms of long barrow on the
Lincolnshire Wolds and its adjacent regions are therefore considered to be of
national importance and all examples with significant surviving remains are
considered worthy of protection.
Although the long barrow south of Langton Grange Cottage has been degraded by
ploughing, rare and valuable archaeological deposits will be retained on the
buried ground surface within the enclosure and within the fills of the ditch.
These will contain valuable information relating to the date and construction
of the barrow and the sequence of mortuary practices at the site.
Environmental evidence will also be preserved in these deposits relating to
the nature of the landscape in which the monument was set.
The proximity of Spellow Hills long barrow is indicative of the ritual
significance of the location and poses wider questions concerning patterns of
settlement and demography during the Neolithic period.
Details
The monument includes the buried remains of a Neolithic long barrow located
80m above sea level above the source of a tributary of the River Lymn, 650m
south of Langton Grange Cottage. Although the barrow cannot be seen on the
ground, it is clearly visible as a cropmark from the air as an elongated
oblong enclosure defined by an infilled ditch aligned north east-south west,
and measuring some 60m by 20m. The ditch has straight sides and curved ends
and is thought to be unbroken by a causeway, representing a simpler form
of this monument class. It is thought that the enclosure was a focus of
mortuary activities including the exposure of human remains, and structures
and deposits associated with these activities will survive as buried features.
It is situated c.275m south west of Spellow Hills long barrow which is the
subject of a separate scheduling.
MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
It includes a 5 metre boundary around the archaeological features,
considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.
