Details

The monument includes a long barrow set on level ground above the valley of By
Brook, a tributary of the River Avon. It is orientated east-west and appears
rectangular in shape. The monument measures 56m long, 38m wide and 1.5m high.
Towards the eastern end of the mound are the remains of a limestone chamber
comprising a capstone, 3m by 2m in size, leaning against the western side of
two large uprights which measure 2m by 1m. Flanking ditches, from which
material was quarried during the construction of the monument, run parallel to
the north and south sides of the mound. These have been infilled over the
years but survive as buried features c.3m wide.
The monument was partially excavated by Colt-Hoare in 1821 and again by Scrope
in 1854/5. Finds included twenty-six skeletons in four limestone chambers.

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 180 long barrows of Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset form the densest and
one of the most significant concentrations of monuments of this type in the
country. The Lugbury Farm barrow is important as, despite partial excavation
of the site on two separate occasions and cultivation of part of the barrow
mound, much of the monument survives intact, in particular the buried ground
surface and ditches. The site therefore has potential for the recovery of
further archaeological remains as well as environmental evidence relating to
the period in which the monument was constructed. The importance of the site
is enhanced by the survival of numerous Bronze Age burial monuments in the
immediate area. Combined, these give an indication of how settlement of the
area continued between the 5th and 2nd millennia BC.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
'Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine' in Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine, , Vol. 49, (1958)

Source: Historic England