Withington long barrow, 870m south west of Woodbridge Cottage

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.

Withington long barrow, 870m south west of Woodbridge Cottage survives relatively well, despite localised disturbance at either end and lies in an area of prehistoric activity with a round barrow 330m to the north west. The barrow mound will contain evidence for chambers, burials and grave goods, which will provide information about prehistoric funerary practices and about the size of the local community at that time. The barrow mound will also preserve environmental information in the buried original ground surface, predating the construction of the barrow and giving an insight into the landscape in which the monument was set. In addition 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 ENE-WSW located just below the crest of an east-facing hill in the Cotswolds. It is visible as a barrow mound 58m long, 18m wide and up to 2m high. There is an area of disturbance 14m from the west end of the barrow, and a second depression 17m from the east end, both of which are thought to have been the result of unrecorded excavations in the past. Two parallel ditches, from which material was excavated during the construction of the barrow, lie on either side of the barrow mound to the north west and south east. These ditches are no longer visible at ground level, having become infilled over the years, but survive as buried features about 3m wide. In 1883 Witts noted that the chamber at the eastern end of the mound had been previously opened, and in 1936 O'Neil recorded the second area of disturbance at the western end.

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:

32374

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. LXXIX, (1960), 94

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