Long barrow south of Scamblesby

Summary

The surface and buried remains of a Neolithic long barrow, visible from the air as a crop mark.

Reasons for Designation

The long barrow south of Scamblesby is scheduled for the following principal reasons:

* Survival: as a clearly defined crop mark representing the burial practices, beliefs and social organisation amongst early prehistoric communities;
* Potential: for the buried 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 the barrow was constructed;
* Period: as one of very few monument types dating to the early prehistoric period, it is highly representative of the Neolithic;
* Rarity: the long barrow is an example of a monument type which is rare nationally and one of very few monument types to offer us insight into the lives and deaths of early prehistoric communities in this country;
* Group value: It forms part of the wider nationally significant group of long barrows in the Lincolnshire Wolds demonstrating that there was considerable activity in this location in the Neolithic.

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) represents a monument which never developed a mound.

The long barrow south of Scamblesby was first identified on aerial photos taken in 1979, visible as a crop mark. The form and position of the barrow was originally mapped as part of the National Mapping Programme (NMP) in the same year. Later the long barrow was more accurately mapped following the geophysical survey carried out by Heritage Lincolnshire as part of the Lincolnshire Long Barrow project in 2018.

Details

PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS

The monument consists of the buried remains of a Neolithic long barrow, on gently sloping ground south of Scamblesby.

DESCRIPTION

The site of the barrow lies to the south of Scamblesby on the east side of the A153 Scamblesby Hill Road. It is located 600m south-west of the Church of St Martin and 570m south-east of Ranyard House. The site lies on gently sloping ground at a height of approximately 85m AOD (Above Ordnance Datum).

The barrow has been mapped from aerial photographs as two curving ditches, aligned NNW-SSE. It measures approximately 45m by 30m with the long axis running parallel to the contours of the landscape. The ditches are irregular in form and appear not to be complete with breaks at either end. Mapping records internal pits and linear features apparently crossing the barrow. There are no visible earthwork remains.

Valuable archaeological deposits will be preserved in the fills of the ditches and any associated features of the long barrow. 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 forms a group with the wider nationally significant group of long barrows in the Lincolnshire Wolds.

EXTENT OF SCHEDULING

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

Sources

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

Websites
Lincolnshire Heritage Explorer, accessed 13/03/2026 from https://heritage-explorer.lincolnshire.gov.uk/Monument/MLI43653

Other
Lincolnshire Long Barrows Assessment Project 7400: Geophysical Survey Report LLB1.21 on AMIE 1050111, April 2018 prepared by Heritage Lincolnshire and Archaeological Project Services
Aerial photograph: NMR 1666/315-316, 26 July 1979

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