Bourton Clump long barrow

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 examples of long barrows and long cairns, their counterparts in the uplands, are recorded nationally. 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 long barrow known as `Bourton Clump' survives well as an unexcavated long barrow, and will contain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to the barrow and the landscape in which it was constructed. This monument represents an example of a group of long barrows commonly referred to as the Cotswold-Severn group, named after the area in which they are found.

Details

The monument includes a long barrow orientated north east-south west just below the crest of a NNE-facing hillside in the Cotswolds, with extensive views to the north, east and south. The barrow has a mound which measures approximately 44m long. It is approximately 0.75m high at its north east end rising to 2m high towards the south west. It is approximately 9m wide at the north east end, 20m wide in the middle and 8m wide at the south west end. On either side of the mound is a berm approximately 5m wide and a ditch. Material was excavated from the ditches during the construction of the long barrow mound. The ditches can no longer be seen at ground level, but survive as buried features approximately 5m wide. The barrow was discovered by the Revd Jowett Burton in 1923, and subsequently visited and its status confirmed by Grinsell in 1959. The drystone walls which surround part of the mound and that which leads west from the mound are excluded from the scheduling, but the ground beneath them 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:

28846

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
O`Neil, H E, Grinsell, L V, Proc of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Arch Soc in Gloucestershire Barrows, Vol. 79, (1960), 72

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