Neolithic long barrow and two Bronze Age bowl barrows north of Cold Harbour Farm

Summary

Neolithic long barrow and two Bronze Age bowl barrows north of Cold Harbour Farm.

Reasons for Designation

The Neolithic long barrow and two Bronze Age barrows north of Cold Harbour Farm are scheduled for the following principal reasons:

* Survival: as a group of barrows visible as clearly defined cropmarks and soil marks on aerial photography;

* Potential: for the buried deposits which retain considerable potential to provide evidence relating to social organisation and demographics, cultural associations, human development, disease, diet, and death rituals. Buried environmental evidence can also inform us about the landscape in which the barrows were constructed;

* Period: as a group of barrows spanning from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age, they are highly representative of their periods;

* Rarity: long barrows are rare nationally, and barrows are one of very few monument types to offer us insights into the lives and deaths of early prehistoric communities in this country;

* Group value: for their close proximity to other contemporary or spatially-related scheduled monuments, in particular a scheduled long barrow east of Cold Harbour Farm (NHLE 1489427) and a bowl barrow 600m WSW of New Buildings (NHLE 1013893).

History

Long barrows and chambered tombs are the main forms of Neolithic funerary monument, constructed from before 3800 BC with new monuments continuing to be built throughout the 4th millennium BC. Where they are precisely dated it appears their primary use for burial rarely lasted longer than about 100 years. Generally comprising long, linear earthen mounds or stone cairns, often flanked by ditches, they can appear as distinctive features in the landscape. They measure up to about 100m in length, 35m in width and 4m in height, and are sometimes trapezoidal or oval in plan. Earthen long barrows are found mostly in southern and eastern England and are usually unchambered, although some examples have been found to contain timber mortuary structures. Regional variation in construction is generally a reflection of locally available resources. Megalithic or stone chambered tombs are most common in Scotland and Wales but are also found in those parts of England with ready access to the large stones and boulders from which they are constructed, especially the Cotswolds, the South-West and Kent. There are around 540 long barrows recorded nationally.

Long barrows of the Lincolnshire Wolds 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. A small number survive as earthworks but the majority are known from crop marks and soil marks where no or very low mounds are evident on the surface. Not all Lincolnshire long barrows had mounds and our current understanding of Neolithic mortuary practices in this part of the country is that the large barrow mound was in fact the final phase of construction which was not reached by all monuments. Previously many of the sites where only the ditched enclosure is known have been interpreted as a barrow where the mound has been degraded or removed by subsequent agricultural activity. In some cases the ditched enclosure (mortuary enclosure) represents a monument which never developed a mound.

Round barrows are funerary monuments dating from the Late Neolithic period to the Late Bronze Age, with most examples belonging to the period 2400-1500 BC. They were constructed as earthen or rubble mounds, sometimes ditched, which covered single or multiple burials. Often occupying prominent locations, they are a major historic element in the modern landscape and their considerable variation of form and longevity as a monument type provide important information on the diversity of beliefs and social organisations amongst early prehistoric communities. They occur either in isolation or grouped as cemeteries and often acted as a focus for burials in later periods.

Cropmarks of a probable Neolithic long barrow to the north of Cold Harbour Farm, Stenigot were identified from aerial photographs taken in 1995 as part of the National Mapping Programme (NMP). The long barrow was included in D Jones’ long barrow and enclosure analysis published in 1998. The National Mapping Programme also identified the potential survival of two Bronze Age bowl barrows in close proximity, south-east and east of the long barrow. The ‘Neolithic long barrow and two Bronze Age bowl barrows 250m north east of Cold Harbour Farm’ were scheduled on 01 July 1999. Recent aerial photography and geophysical survey (magnetometry and resistivity) carried out as part of the Lincolnshire Long Barrows project (2018) have provided greater understanding and accuracy in the identification and location of the long barrow and two bowl barrows.

Details

PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS: The monument includes the buried remains of a Neolithic long barrow and two Bronze Age bowl barrows, and the group is located around 320m north of Cold Harbour Farm. The long barrow is situated at a height of around 145m AOD, close to the crest of a ridge, with land sloping down to the west towards a tributary of the River Bain. Two round barrows are located along the same contour, around 90m west-north-west and 250m east-south-east of the long barrow.

DESCRIPTION: Cropmarks of a probable Neolithic long barrow centred at TF 2670 8188, to the north of Cold Harbour Farm, Stenigot have been recorded on aerial photographs since 1995. The long barrow is situated on a west-facing slope just below the crest of a ridge at around 145m AOD, and the land slopes down to the west towards the tributary of the River Bain. Two Bronze Age bowl barrows are sited on the crest, adjacent the Bluestone Heath Ridgeway. The long barrow is aligned south-east to north-west, with its long axis traversing the contour of the hill slope. It is trapezoidal on plan with rounded ends, and measures around 58m in length and between 12m and 22m in width. The barrow mound is visible as a soilmark on aerial photographs and also as a shallow earthwork on digital elevation models derived from 2m gridded height data and specialist oblique photography undertaken in 2016. The curve of the broad south-eastern terminal is less pronounced than that to the north-west. The long barrow ditch defines the area set aside for funerary and ritual activities. Cropmarks indicate that the ditches are notably wider on the sides, perhaps indicating a later phase of cutting for material to create a mound (Jones). No causeway across the ditch is apparent. Recent assessment recorded a narrow linear ditch within the barrow enclosure. Internal features such as ritual pits, post holes and mortuary surfaces and deposits will be preserved beneath the present ground surface. The long barrow is considered to belong to a group of similar monuments, both simple and elaborated, which focussed on the River Bain and its tributaries, and with the prehistoric trackway now formalised as the Bluestone Heath Road.

Aerial photography and geophysical survey has identified two probable Bronze Age bowl barrows around 90m west-north-west and 250m east-south-east of the long barrow. The two bowl barrows are defined by circular ditches from which material for the barrow mounds would have been quarried. Although the barrows cannot be seen on the ground, their infilled and buried ditches are visible from the air as cropmarks (areas of enhanced crop growth resulting from higher levels of moisture retained by the underlying archaeological features). The westernmost bowl barrow, centred at TF 2658 8194, is visible as a cropmark on aerial photography, with a circular enclosure defined by a single ditch measuring roughly 13m in diameter. The easternmost bowl barrow, centred at TF 2694 8172, lies on the crest of a north-facing slope. The round barrow is visible from the air as a cropmark with a circular enclosure defined by a single ditch measuring 15m in diameter; the compacted surface of the internal mound is visible as a soilmark. This round barrow has been recorded on aerial photographs since 1995.

The long barrow and two bowl barrows lie within an extensive cropmark complex, which includes a series of rectilinear enclosures, pits and ditches thought to be Iron Age or Roman in date. Some cropmark enclosures appear to respect the north-west to south-east alignment of the long barrow. A broad medieval or post-medieval boundary bank is recorded from aerial data in the same north-west to south-east alignment, incorporating the position of the long barrow, whilst a scheduled long barrow lies around 350m to the south-east (NHLE 1489427) known as ‘Long barrow east of Cold Harbour Farm’.

Extent of scheduling: The scheduled areas are marked on the attached map and include a 5m buffer zone around the barrows which is considered necessary for the support and preservation of the monument. There are no exclusions from the scheduling.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

29738

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Last, J, Beyond the Grave, New Perspectives on Barrows, (2007)
Field, D, Earthen Long Barrows, The Earliest Monuments in the British Isles, (2006)
Woodward, A, British Barrows A Matter of Life and Death, (2000)
Jones, D, Long Barrows and Neolithic Elongated Enclosures in Lincolnshire: An Analysis of the Air Photographic Evidence in Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Vol. 64, (1998), 83-114

Websites
Lincolnshire Heritage Explorer, 'Monument record MLI43185 - Neolithic Long Barrow, Cold Harbour Farm, Stenigot', accessed 18 April 2024 from https://heritage-explorer.lincolnshire.gov.uk/Monument/MLI43185
Lincolnshire Heritage Explorer, ‘Monument record MLI80030 – Bronze Age bowl barrow, Cold Harbour Farm, Stenigot’, accessed 17 May 2024 from https://heritage-explorer.lincolnshire.gov.uk/Monument/MLI80030
Lincolnshire Heritage Explorer, ‘Monument record MLI80029 – Bronze Age bowl barrow, Cold Harbour Farm, Stenigot’, accessed 17 May 2024 from https://heritage-explorer.lincolnshire.gov.uk/Monument/MLI80029
Lincolnshire Heritage Explorer, ‘Monument record MLI127003 – Bronze Age bowl barrow, Cold Harbour Farm, Stenigot’, accessed 17 May 2024 from https://heritage-explorer.lincolnshire.gov.uk/Monument/MLI127003

Other
Heritage Lincolnshire, ‘Lincolnshire Long Barrows Assessment Project (No.7400), Geophysical Survey Report: Northeast of Cold Harbour Farm, AMIE 1094089, Stenigot, Lincolnshire’ (December 2018)

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