Lad Barrow 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.

Despite erosion from past cultivation, Lad Barrow long barrow will contain archaeological information about Neolithic beliefs, economy and environment.

Details

The monument includes a long barrow situated on a gentle west facing slope below the crest of a spur. The barrow is orientated east-west but has been much distorted by previous cultivation and now appears almost circular in plan. The mound is 40m long and 34m wide at the centre where it reaches a maximum height of 0.7m. Although no longer visible on the surface, quarry ditches will flank either side of the mound and will survive as buried features 3m wide. Early reports record two earthfast stones at the east end of the mound which may have formed part of a terminal chamber or blind entrance, but these are no longer visible.

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:

29785

Legacy System:

RSM

End of official list entry

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