Details

The monument includes a long barrow set just below the crest of a south-west
facing slope in an area of gently undulating chalk downland. The barrow mound
is orientated ENE-WSW and survives to a height of 1.2m. It measures 27m long
and is 23m wide. Flanking ditches, from which material was quarried during
the construction of the monument, run parallel to the north and south
sides of the barrow mound. These have been infilled over the years and now
survive as buried features c.3m wide.

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. Despite cultivation of the site, much of the
Ballard's Copse barrow survives comparatively well and has potential for the
recovery of archaeological remains. The significance of the monument is
enhanced by the fact that numerous other barrow mounds survive in the area
as well as additional evidence for contemporary settlement. Such evidence
provides a clear indication of the extent to which the area was settled
during the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
SU27SE 101, Wilts SMR SU27SE 101,

Source: Historic England