Details

The monument includes a long barrow situated on the shoulder of a plateau and
covered by trees and scrub in an area of arable cultivation. Although much of
the barrow mound survives as an earthwork, part of it was damaged by quarrying
before 1866. The mound is orientated SE-NW and is about 50m long by 20m wide,
the NW and SE ends of the mound being under cultivation. It appears curved in
plan and survives to a maximum height of 1m.
Flanking quarry ditches run parallel to the mound on the north and south
sides. The southern ditch survives beneath the track which runs adjacent to
the mound, and the northern ditch in an arable field. In the medieval period
the mound was a landmark on the boundary between the tithings of West and East
Martin.

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. This example is important as it is one of several monuments in the
immediate area. Such groups rarely survive.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Lane Poole, EH, Damerham and Martin: a study in local history, (1976)
Smith, I F , Long Barrows in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, (1979)
Peacock, E, 'ms no. 190 in the collections for the parochial history of Wilts' in History Of The Parish Of Martin, (1866)

Source: Historic England