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 buried remains of the Neolithic long barrow 770m ESE of Rowston
Grange are not visible on the ground they are clearly visible from the air and
will retain valuable archaeological deposits on and in the buried ground
surface and in the fills of the ditch which will contain important information
relating to the dating and construction of the barrow and the sequence of
burial ritual at the site. Environmental evidence preserved in these deposits
will contain information on the nature of the landscape in which the monument
was constructed and used, and may provide insight into the sequence of
inundation in this part of the fens. The monument is the only long barrow so
far discovered in the Lincolnshire fens and is, therefore, a valuable example
which may demonstrate cultural similarities and differences between the
regional group of long barrows associated with the Lincolnshire Wolds, and
those known in the fenlands of Cambridgeshire.
The close proximity of a Bronze Age barrow cemetery at Walcott Commons, c.700m
to the east, indicates the continuing ritual significance of this location
during the prehistoric period.
Details
The monument includes the buried remains of a Neolithic long barrow located 5m
above sea level on the drained fenland of Walcott Commons, 770m ESE of Rowston
Grange. Although the long barrow cannot be seen on the ground, it has
been recorded on aerial photographs as a cropmark representing a roughly
oblong mound, now degraded by ploughing, and enclosed by a ditch. It is
aligned north-south and measures c.38m long by 20m wide.
The location of this long barrow in a fenland setting is currently unique in
Lincolnshire though parallels are known in the Cambridgeshire fens.
The Bronze Age barrow cemetery at Walcott Commons, which is the subject of a
separate scheduling, lies approximately 700m to the east of the monument.
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.
