Summary

Long barrow 55m north east of Hampton Lodge.

Source: Historic England

Details

This record was the subject of a minor enhancement on 17 December 2015. The record has been generated from an "old county number" (OCN) scheduling record. These are monuments that were not reviewed under the Monuments Protection Programme and are some of our oldest designation records.

The monument includes a long barrow situated on the upper north east facing slopes of a prominent hill with distant views across the River Frome. The long barrow survives as a roughly rectangular mound aligned SSE to NNW and measuring up to 54m long, 15.5m wide and 1.2m high, the side ditches are preserved as entirely buried features.

Other archaeological remains in the vicinity are scheduled separately.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

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 some reduction in the height of the mound through past forestry activity the long barrow 55m north east of Hampton Lodge survives comparatively well and will contain will contain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to its construction, longevity, territorial significance, social organisation, funerary and ritual practices and overall landscape context.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
PastScape Monument No:-453734

Source: Historic England