Long barrow on Winterbourne Stoke Down

Reasons for Designation

The most complete and extensive survival of chalk downland archaeological remains in central southern England occurs on Salisbury Plain, particularly in those areas lying within the Salisbury Plain Training Area. These remains represent one of the few extant archaeological "landscapes" in Britain and are considered to be of special significance because they differ in character from those in other areas with comparable levels of preservation. Individual sites on Salisbury Plain are seen as being additionally important because the evidence of their direct association with each other survives so well. Twenty-eight Neolithic long barrows have been identified in the Salisbury Plain Training Area. As a monument type long barrows are sufficiently rare nationally that, unless severely damaged, all examples surviving as earthworks are considered to be of national importance.

The long barrow on Winterbourne Stoke Down survives well and is known from part excavation to contain archaeological remains and environmental evidence relating to the monument and the landscape in which it was constructed.

Details

The monument includes a long barrow orientated east - west situated on a downland spur 180m south of the A360 on Winterbourne Stoke Down. The mound is 43m long. A 36m length of the mound survives as a visible earthwork which varies in height from 1.5m high at the western end to c.1m at the eastern end. Beyond this the remainder of the mound is visible as a slight rise in the field surface. The mound is 17m wide and is flanked on either side by a ditch up to 5m wide; that on the south side is visible as a shallow depression. The north western ditch survives as a buried feature. A part excavation by Cunnington in the early 19th century produced a cremation covered with flints and two deep cists containing wood ash and charcoal. The long barrow lies within a levelled field system which has not been included in the scheduling. The metalling of the adjacent track and all fence posts are excluded from the scheduling but the ground beneath these features is included.

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:

28926

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Hoare, R C, Ancient History of Wiltshire, (1812), 117
Grinsell, LV, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume V, (1957), 146
Cunnington, M E, Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine in List of the Long Barrows of Wiltshire, Vol. 38, (1914), 407

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.