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.
Few ovate long barrows survive nationally and the significance of this example
is increased by its association with a bowl barrow.
Bowl barrows, the most numerous form of round barrow, are funerary monuments
dating from the late Neolithic period to the late Bronze Age, with most
examples belonging to the period 2400-1500BC. They were constructed as
earthen or rubble mounds, sometimes ditched, which covered single or multiple
burials. There are over 10,000 surviving bowl barrows recorded nationally
occurring across most of lowland Britain, providing information on the
diversity of beliefs and social organisation amongst Bronze Age communities.
Details
The monument includes a long barrow and an adjoining bowl barrow set on a
gentle south-east facing slope 250m south of Martin's Clump. The long barrow
is orientated NNE-SSW and is ovoid in plan with the broader end to the NNE.
It is 36m long and about 27m wide at the centre where it stands to a height of
2m above the ditches. The ditches, from which mound material was quarried,
survive to a maximum width of 4m and average 0.5m deep.
A small bowl barrow adjoins the NW ditch of the long barrow. It has a maximum
diameter of 10m and survives to a height of 0.25m. Although no longer visible
at ground level, a quarry ditch surrounded the barrow mound on all but the
eastern side where it abuts the long barrow. This survives as a buried
feature having infilled over the years.
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.
