Part of an Anglo-Saxon cemetery, possible structure and Bronze Age ring ditch at land between the A32 and Marlands Lane, West Meon, Hampshire

Summary

Part of a pagan Anglo-Saxon inhumation cemetery, a possible post hole structure and a Bronze Age ring ditch.

Reasons for Designation

Part of an Anglo-Saxon cemetery, possible post hole structure and a Bronze Age ring ditch at land between the A32 and Marlands Lane, West Meon, Hampshire are scheduled for the following principal reasons:

* Period/Rarity: both the ring ditch and Anglo-Saxon cemetery are representative of their respective periods and there is a presumption in favour of designation when they survive to any substantive degree, as is the case here. They will provide a valuable source of archaeological information about past populations, material culture and ritual;

* Survival: air photographic evidence for the ring ditch shows that it survives well as a buried feature. The good survival of the ring ditch and part of the Anglo-Saxon cemetery to the immediate south has been demonstrated by excavation. In addition the geophysical survey identifying further burials within the scheduled area indicates that good survival can be expected;

* Potential: excavation of the ring ditch and Anglo-Saxon cemetery to the immediate south of the scheduled area proved that there can be expected to be considerable archaeological potential remaining in the features located in this field.

History

Round barrow cemeteries date to the Bronze Age (c2000-700BC). They comprise closely-spaced groups of up to 30 round barrows - rubble or earthern mounds covering single or multiple burials. Most cemeteries developed over a considerable period of time, often many centuries, and in some cases acted as a focus for burials as late as the early medieval period. They exhibit considerable diversity of burial rite, plan and form, frequently including several different types of round barrow, occasionally associated with earlier long barrows. Where large scale investigation has been undertaken around them, contemporary or later 'flat' burials between the barrow mounds have often been revealed. Round barrow cemeteries occur across most of lowland Britain, with a marked concentration in Wessex. Their diversity and longevity as a monument type provide important information of the variety of beliefs and social organisation amongst early prehistoric communities. They are particularly representative of their period.

Historical maps indicate that the West Meon site has been in agricultural use for at least the past 300 years. The southern part of the former large field, outside the scheduled area, was the subject of a planning application for a small housing estate in 2010. Before a pre-determination excavation in 2011 the whole field was identified from an air photographic survey as containing ring ditches (ploughed down Bronze Age barrows but which will retain archaeological and environmental evidence) and a prehistoric linear feature. It is considered that the linear feature is a field bank, part of a prehistoric field system extending to the north and west of the meadow, which was aligned on the Bronze Age barrows. These barrows are part of a dispersed round barrow cemetery along the chalk spur north of the River Meon. Other remains of Bronze Age barrows in the form of ring ditches belonging to this cemetery have been identified from air photographs in two clusters 0.8km and 0.9km to the north-east and a further ring ditch 0.6km to the east.

Geophysical survey in 2008 identified the ring ditch in the southern part of the meadow (which is now under a small housing development and outside the scheduled area), although did not pick up the presence of the burials within it: it was subsequently entirely excavated in 2011, including a primary urned cremation burial at the centre of the ring ditch and another cremation burial in the ditch itself. An additional feature which the geophysical survey recorded to the north of this ring ditch was a possible structure with postholes.
Outside the extent of the cemetery there is other evidence for a prehistoric presence in the area. 1km to the south-east of the meadow another ring ditch is recorded on the Hampshire Historic Environment Record (HER); four Bronze Age barrows near Franklins Farm, 8.7km to the south-west were associated with a cremation group from which an amber bead was recovered, an indication of a possible pagan Anglo-Saxon presence. In addition a number of prehistoric field systems (HER WMC 38544 and 38545) lie to the west of the meadow.

The excavated ring ditch was found to be the focus of part of an Anglo-Saxon cemetery. This did not show up on the 2008 geophysical survey but was excavated at the same time as the ring ditch in 2011. 49 burials were excavated including men, women and children; the graves were aligned N-S and contained grave goods comprising weapons and ornaments.

Anglo-Saxon inhumation cemeteries began in the C5 AD. There is evidence, from distinctive burials and cemeteries, new settlements, and new forms of pottery and metalwork, of the migration to Britain of settlers from northern Europe, bringing with them new religious beliefs. The Roman towns appear to have gone into rapid decline and the old rural settlement pattern to have been disrupted. Although some Roman settlements and cemeteries continued in use, the native Britons either were driven out or else rapidly adopted many of the cultural practices of the new settlers, and it soon becomes difficult to distinguish them in the archaeological record. So-called Anglo-Saxon cemeteries are generally dated to the early Anglo-Saxon period, from the C5 to the C7 AD, although some have been dated into the C8. With the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity during the late C6 and C7 AD these pagan cemeteries appear to have been abandoned in favour of new sites, some of which have continued in use up to the present day.

Anglo-Saxon burial practices included both inhumation and cremation. Inhumation cemeteries consist predominantly of inhumation burials which were placed in rectangular pits in the ground, occasionally within coffins. Bodies were normally accompanied by a range of grave goods, including jewellery and weaponry. The cemeteries vary in size, the largest containing several hundred burials, such as that at Morningthorpe, Norfolk, which contained around 365 burials. However few examples have been completely excavated and at most excavated sites it seems that the burials were randomly distributed, though at some cemeteries attempts at cemetery planning and formal organisation can be seen, such as at Buckden, Kent and Sewerby, East Yorkshire. Anglo-Saxon inhumations also occur as secondary insertions in prehistoric barrows, as well as beneath newly-constructed barrow mounds. The main concentrations of inhumation cemeteries seem to be in the south and east of England. Around 1,000 inhumation cemeteries have been recorded in England. They represent one of our principal sources of archaeological evidence about the Early Anglo-Saxon period, providing information on population, social structure and belief systems.

The Early Anglo-Saxon period in Hampshire is recognised by the survival of cemeteries, farms and hamlets. Cemeteries similar to that at West Meon are represented by a number of examples in the county, including the late Roman and early Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Itchen Abbas and the 147 inhumations and cremation burials of the partially excavated Early-Mid Anglo-Saxon period at Alton.

West Meon is recorded as Aet (Meone) in a Saxon charter dating to AD 932, when it formed part of the Kingdom of Wessex. However, the presence of a Saxon settlement in the area before this date was unknown until the discovery of part of the pagan Anglo-Saxon inhumation cemetery, clustered around the ring ditch and dating to AD 600-700, in the southern part of what was a large field; this has been excavated and a small housing estate built.

In late February or early March 2014 a geophysical survey was carried out at the southern end of the present field (just to the north of the housing estate) with Scheduled Moument Consent and the owner's permission. The survey was conducted by Carl Raven of the Liss Archaeology Group and Nick Stoodley for the Meon Valley Saxon archaeology team. The resistivity results showed three probable graves and possibly grave goods just to the north of the ring ditch. The resistivity plot also showed other areas of disturbance notably towards the north east end of the field. It also confirmed the anomaly shown by the earlier survey i.e. a structure comprising a set of small, closely spaced post holes.

Details

SUMMARY OF MONUMENT: part of a pagan Anglo-Saxon inhumation cemetery, a possible post hole structure and a Bronze Age ring ditch.

DESCRIPTION:
The site is located in a field north of a housing development between the A32 and Marlands Lane, and lies on a gently south-west sloping chalk spur overlooking the River Meon and the village of West Meon. The field is under grass, but has been ploughed in the past as evidenced by the marks of ploughing in the field seen in a 1974 oblique air photograph.

Although no features can be seen on the ground, the excavation of part of the Anglo-Saxon cemetery immediately to the south of the scheduled area showed that there was a cluster of burials at the north edge of that excavation. A geophysical survey by the Liss Archaeology Group in early 2014 showed that the cemetery continues into the field to the north of the housing estate, with at least three further burials and possibly grave goods identified just to the north of the ring ditch. The survival and potential of this part of the cemetery can be expected to be equally as good as that found in the southern, excavated, part of the cemetery. The resistivity plot also showed other areas of disturbance, notably towards the north-east end of the field.

The geophysical survey by ArchaeoPhysica Ltd in 2008 identified an enigmatic possible structure, about 50m to the north of the excavated ring ditch, giving the impression of a ring 31m in diameter. This was thought to be some sort of discontinuity in the subsurface, marking the site of a possible structure suggested to be a set of small closely spaced post holes. The presence of this feature was also identified in the Liss Archaeology Group survey in early 2014.

At the north end of the scheduled field is a ring ditch, the remains of a Bronze Age barrow, identified from air photographs in the English Heritage Archive. This ring ditch is beyond the extent of the geophysical survey and is of a similar size to the 28m diameter ring ditch excavated in the former field to the south.

EXTENT OF SCHEDULING
The scheduling aims to protect the Anglo-Saxon inhumation cemetery, the possible structure and the ring ditch. The full extent of the surviving field is included because of the random nature of the distribution of Anglo-Saxon graves and the presence of the ring ditch at the north end of the meadow. The monument has a maximum length of about 125m long NE-SW and width of about 100m WNW-ESE.

All fencing is excluded from the scheduling.

Sources

Other
Southampton Archaeology Unit Report 1045 Archaeological evaluation excavation at land opposite the Recreation Ground, Marlands Lane, West Meon, Hampshire WINCM:AY464 June 2011,
Air photograph SU6424/7 NMR 704 /418-420 07 MAR 1974,
Hampshire County Council Heritage Environment Record,
Air photograph library No 14658 OS/94026 20 MAR 1994,

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.

Print the official list entry