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.
The 180 long barrows of Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset form the densest
and one of the most important concentrations of monuments of this type in the
country. Grans barrow is important as it survives particularly well and is one
of three long barrows surviving in the area. Such clusters are significant as
they give an indication of the intensity with which areas were settled during
the Neolithic period. With no evidence for formal excavation of the monument,
the site has considerable potential, both for the recovery of archaeological
and environmental evidence.
Details
The monument includes a long barrow conspicuously sited at the top of a
north-facing slope. The mound is orientated SSE-NNW and tapers in plan with
the broader and higher end facing SSE. It is 58m long, 19m wide and rises to
a height of 2.3m above the berms which survive to a width of 8m. The ditches,
from which mound material was quarried, average 4m wide and are curved in
plan, bending in towards the mound at the north end. Although no longer
visible at ground level, they survive as buried features and have been located
both by magnetic survey and aerial photography.
The mound is situated 100m south east of Knap barrow and is visible from a
third long barrow at Duck's Nest, both of which are the subject of
separate schedulings.
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.
