Details

The monument includes a long barrow 250m south of Ellen's Lodge in Shilcott
Wood on the Ditchley Park Estate. It is situated on a slight ridge running
from east to west.
The barrow mound, which is orientated north east to south west, measures 26m
long, 14m wide and stands up to 1m high. The south western end of the mound
has a flat facade while the mound tails off to the north east, indicating that
the front of the barrow faced west. This end has been partially reduced and
spread in the past but survives to a height of 0.5m.
Flanking either side of the barrow mound was a quarry ditch, from which
material was obtained during the construction of the mound. These are no
longer visible at ground level but will survive as buried features c.4m wide
and separated from the sides of the mound by a c.2m wide berm.

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.

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 long
barrows are recorded in England. 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 long barrow south of Ellen's Lodge in Shilcott Wood survives well and will
contain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to its construction
and the landscape in which it was built.
This is an example of a group of long barrows known collectively as the
Cotswold Severn tombs, named after the area in which they occur.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
PRN 11,861, C.A.O., Mound in Shilctt Wood, Ditchley, (1976)
Scale 1:100 Copy in SMR, OXON., Leggatt, E H, Shilcott Wood. Ditchley. Mound at SP38042219, (1978)
Title: Ordnance Survey 1:10560
Source Date:
Author:
Publisher:
Surveyor:
SP 31 NW

Source: Historic England