Neolithic long barrow 700m north of Thoresway Grange Farm

Summary

The earthworks and buried remains of a Neolithic long barrow.

Reasons for Designation

The long barrow 700m north of Thoresway Grange Farm is scheduled for the following principal reasons:

* Survival: as a clearly defined earthwork and soilmark of a long barrow, representing the burial practices, beliefs and social organisation amongst early prehistoric communities;

* Potential: for the buried archaeological 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 barrows were constructed;

* Period: as one of very few monument types dating to the early prehistoric, it is highly representative of the Neolithic period;

* Rarity: as an example of a monument type which is rare nationally and one of very few monument types to offer insight into the lives and deaths of early prehistoric communities in this country:

* Group value: it is one of a large group of similar monuments in the Lincolnshire Wolds and has a particular relationship with those of the valleys of the Croxby and Waithe Becks.

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) actually represents a monument which never developed a mound.

It is not known exactly when the barrow 700m north of Thoresway Grange Farm was rediscovered, but it was identified on a single aerial photograph dated 1979, and then again on aerial photographs dated 1983. It was depicted under the National Mapping Programme in 1992-96. In 1998 it was included in the “Gazetteer of Neolithic Elongated Enclosures and Extant Long Barrows in (Historic) Lincolnshire". It became a scheduled monument in April 1999.

Details

PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS

A Neolithic long barrow approximately 700m NNE of Thoresway Grange Farm which is itself located about 1km north of the village of Thoresway. The barrow is on a south facing slope, toward the head of an east-west aligned dry valley. It sits slightly lower than the crest of the hill at approximately 110m AOD (above ordnance datum).

DESCRIPTION

The long barrow is visible as soil marks on vertical air photographs and as a shallow earthwork on a Digital Elevation Model (DEM), centred at TF 1658 9829. The long barrow is aligned south-east to north-west and measures about 46m by 26m. An elongated shallow mound survives within this area, measuring 41.3m by 16.5m, surrounded by a curvilinear ditch. The long sides of the ditch are slightly thickened and the circuit is complete. The absence of a causeway suggests that this may be an example of the simpler form of Lincolnshire Wolds long barrow. The north-west end of the feature is masked by a hedge line.

The land has been cultivated to a depth of 0.2-0.3m in the past, but had been out of cultivation for some years at the time of survey in 2018.

Valuable archaeological deposits will be preserved in the slight mound, on the buried ground surface and in the fills of the ditch. These will provide rare information concerning the dating and construction of the monument and the sequence of mortuary practices at the site. The same deposits will also retain environmental evidence illustrating the nature of the landscape in which the monument was set.

The long barrow is one of a large group of similar monuments focused on the prehistoric trackway now formalised as the B1225 (High Street) and on the river valleys of the Lincolnshire Wolds, and has a particular relationship with those of the valleys of the Croxby and Waithe Becks such as the long barrow south-west of Thorganby House (NHLE 1020359) and the long barrow in Valley Plantation (NHLE 1015874). Comparisons between these barrows may have considerable implications for the study of communications, settlement and demography during the Neolithic period.

EXTENT OF SCHEDULING:

The mapped depiction of the barrow includes a 5m buffer zone which is considered necessary for the support and preservation of the monument.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

29745

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

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

Websites
Historic England Research Records, accessed 14 April 2021 from https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=df73102f-2472-4763-b136-129456c17b6c&resourceID=19191
Lincolnshire HER record (accessed via the Heritage Gateway ), accessed 14 April 2021 from https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=MLI51694&resourceID=1006

Other
Aerial Photograph, Paul Everson, 1975-90. RCHME. Frame 17. (1979)
Aerial Photograph: Clyde Surveys Ltd. 1983. Clyde Surveys Ltd 8308.1.078
Map: RCHME. 1992-96. National Mapping Programme. TF1698:LI.276.8.1

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