Details

The monument includes a Neolithic oval barrow. The barrow mound is up to
1.75m high and is 52m long, east-west, and 30m wide, north-south. Although no
longer visible at ground level, a ditch, from which material was excavated
during the construction of the monument surrounds the barrow mound. This has
become in-filled over the years but survives as a buried feature 2m wide.
The barrow mound was investigated by the 19th century antiquarian Canon
William Greenwell. He found the cremated remains of a single adult in a small
oval grave beneath the barrow mound. Large quantities of charcoal associated
with the remains suggested that the body was cremated in situ.

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

Oval barrows are funerary and ceremonial monuments of the Early to Middle
Neolithic periods, with the majority of dated monuments belonging to the later
part of the range. They were constructed as earthen or rubble mounds of
roughly elliptical plan, usually delimited by quarry ditches. These ditches
can vary from paired "banana-shaped" ditches flanking the mound to "U-shaped"
or unbroken oval ditches nearly or wholly encircling it. Along with the long
barrows, oval barrows 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, oval barrows have
produced two distinct types of burial rite: communal burials of groups of
individuals, including adults and children, laid directly on the ground
surface before the barrow was built; and burials of one or two adults interred
in a grave pit centrally placed beneath the barrow mound. Certain sites
provide evidence for several phases of funerary monument preceding the barrow
and, consequently, it is probable that they may have acted as important ritual
sites for local communities over a considerable period of time. Similarly, as
the filling of the ditches around oval barrows often contains deliberately
placed deposits of pottery, flintwork and bone, periodic ceremonial activity
may have taken place at the barrow subsequent to its construction. Oval
barrows are very rare nationally, with less than 50 recorded examples in
England. As one of the few types of Neolithic structure to survive as
earthworks, and due to their rarity, their considerable age and their
longevity as a monument type, all oval barrows are considered to be nationally
important.

This barrow is the only securely identified oval barrow in Humberside.
Despite limited partial excavation it survives well. It will retain
significant information on its original form and the manner and duration of
its usage.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Coombs, D, Excavations of three round barrows on Etton Wold, (1974), 3
Greenwell, W , British Barrows, (1877), 284

Source: Historic England