Lodge Park 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.

Lodge Park long barrow survives well in an area which has been under pasture since the 17th century, and is closely associated with a round barrow to the south east which is the subject of a separate scheduling. The barrow mound will contain evidence for chambers, burials and grave goods, which will provide information about prehistoric funerary practices and about the local community at that time. The mound will also preserve environmental evidence in the buried ground surface and give information about the landscape at the time of the barrows construction. The mound and its associated ditches will also contain environmental evidence, in the form of organic material, which will relate both to the monument and the wider landscape.

Details

The monument includes a long barrow orientated south east-north west, which lies on the crest of a hill within the post-medieval deer park known as Lodge Park. It is visible as a barrow mound 55m long, 36m wide and 2.5m high at its highest point. At the south eastern end two upright stones (or orthostats) support a slipped lintel or capstone. The two uprights are 1.5m apart, measuring 0.7m by 0.4m and 0.3m thick, while the capstone is 2.1m long by 0.9m wide and 0.3m thick. Two parallel ditches from which material was excavated for the construction of the barrow lie one on either side of the mound to the north east and south west. These ditches have become infilled over the years and are no longer visible at ground level, but survive as buried features 3m- 4m wide. Lodge Park long barrow was first documented as an earthwork on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey map of 1882, and has been described by a number of commentators since that date. The earliest description, by Witts in 1883, indicates that the condition of the monument has changed little since that time. It is not known how the orthostats and lintel at the south eastern end came to be exposed, but the generally undisturbed condition of the mound suggests that it may have been due to collapse arising from discrete structural instability rather than unrecorded excavation. The function of these stones is unknown, although it has been suggested that they may represent an entrance into a terminal burial chamber, or perhaps a blind entrance. In 1995 the site was subject to a resistivity survey by Dr Alastair Marshall. The mound was shown to be composed of dense rubble with the revetment only slightly discernible. An axial wall is present along most of the mid-line and tranverse walls also appear to be present, suggesting a cellular construction.

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:

32352

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Parry, C, Sherborne Estate, Gloucestershire: Archaeological Survet 1993-94, (1995), 87-88
O`Neil, H E, Grinsell, L V, Proc of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Arch Soc in Gloucestershire Barrows, Vol. LXXIX, (1960), 78

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.