Details

The monument includes a long barrow orientated east to west, 350m south west
of the Normanton Down round barrow cemetery. It is situated on a south facing
slope overlooking an east-west combe that separates Wilsford Down from
Normanton Down.
The barrow mound is 40m long, 18m wide at the east end and 12m wide at the
west end. At the east end it is 2m high, tapering to ground level at the
western end. The mound is flanked on each side by a ditch from which material
was quarried during its construction. The ditch on the north side is 6m wide
and 1m deep, that on the south side is 5m wide and 0.5m deep. Partial
excavation of the monument in the 19th century revealed four primary
inhumations on a floor at the east end, and a secondary inhumation.
The north east-south west track which crosses the western end of the monument
is included in the scheduling. All fence posts are excluded from the
scheduling but the ground beneath these features is included.

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

A small number of areas in southern England appear to have acted as foci for
ceremonial and ritual activity during the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods.
Two of the best known and earliest recognised areas are around Avebury and
Stonehenge, now jointly designated as a World Heritage Site.
The area of chalk downland which surrounds Stonehenge contains one of the
densest and most varied groups of Neolithic and Bronze Age field monuments in
Britain. Included within the area are Stonehenge itself, the Stonehenge
cursus, the Durrington Walls henge, and a variety of burial monuments, many
grouped into cemeteries.
The area has been the subject of archaeological research since the 18th
century when Stukeley recorded many of the monuments and partially excavated a
number of the burial mounds. More recently, the collection of artefacts from
the surfaces of ploughed fields has supplemented the evidence for ritual and
burial by revealing the intensity of contemporary settlement and land-use.
In view of the importance of the area, all ceremonial and sepulchral monuments
of this period which retain significant archaeological remains are identified
as nationally important. Long barrows were constructed as earthen or drystone
mounds often 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 it is probable that long barrows acted as important
ritual sites for local communities over a considerable period of time.
Some 500 long barrows and long cairns, their counterparts in the uplands, are
recorded in England of which at least nine survive in the Stonehenge area.
These represent an important group for understanding the historical context
within which Stonehenge developed during the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze
Age periods.

The long barrow 350m south west of the Normanton Down round barrow cemetery
survives well and is known from partial excavation to contain archaeological
remains and environmental evidence relating to the monument and the landscape
in which it was constructed.

Source: Historic England