Ancient Monuments

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Long barrow 250m south-east of Willesley Warren Farm

A Scheduled Monument in Overton, Hampshire

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Coordinates

Latitude: 51.2704 / 51°16'13"N

Longitude: -1.2748 / 1°16'29"W

OS Eastings: 450690.321932

OS Northings: 152611.53242

OS Grid: SU506526

Mapcode National: GBR 83L.8JZ

Mapcode Global: VHD04.VBGG

Entry Name: Long barrow 250m south-east of Willesley Warren Farm

Scheduled Date: 11 October 1990

Source: Historic England

Source ID: 1013006

English Heritage Legacy ID: 12108

County: Hampshire

Civil Parish: Overton

Traditional County: Hampshire

Lieutenancy Area (Ceremonial County): Hampshire

Church of England Parish: Overton St Mary

Church of England Diocese: Winchester

Details

The monument includes a long barrow, surviving as a low earthwork,
inconspicuously sited on a broad flat-topped spur. The barrow mound is
orientated ESE-WNW and is rectangular in plan. It is 37m long, 21.5m wide and
survives to a height of 0.4m. Flanking quarry ditches surviving to a width of
6m and visible on the ground as areas of improved crop growth run parallel to
the mound on its north and south sides.

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, 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

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