Details

The monument includes a long barrow situated just below the crest of a gentle
north-east facing slope. It survives as a low earthwork in an area of
permanent grassland close to the Porton Ranges. The barrow mound is
orientated ESE-WNW and is ovoid in plan with the broader end facing east. The
barrow mound is 35m long, 27m wide at the east end and 21.5m wide at the west
end. It survives to a height of 0.6m. Flanking the barrow mound to the north
and south are quarry ditches which show as areas of improved grass cover and
darker earth. These are contiguous to the mound and survive to a length of
28m and a width of 6m.

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 important concentrations of monuments of this type in the
country. This example is regarded as important as it survives well and, with
no evidence of formal excavation, the site has considerable archaeological
potential.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Smith, I F , Long Barrows in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, (1979)

Source: Historic England