Details

The monument includes a long barrow situated on level ground in an area of the
Cotswold Hills.
The barrow, known locally as West Barrow, has a mound composed of small
stones; it is trapezoidal in plan and orientated east-west with maximum
dimensions of 82m long, 50m wide and up to c.4m high. The mound is flanked on
either side by a ditch from which material was quarried during the
construction of the monument. The southern ditch has become infilled, but
survives as a buried feature c.5m wide. On the northern side of the monument
the ditch is visible as an earthwork 5m wide and c.0.4m deep.
The barrow was partially excavated in around 1700 by Matthew Huntley who
uncovered three burial chambers which he described as `vaults arched over'.
Each chamber had a separate entrance which was associated with an urn
containing cremated human bones and ashes. The interior of each chamber was
found to contain the remains of unburnt human skulls and long bones.
The dry stone walls overlying the monument are excluded from the scheduling,
although the underlying ground is included.

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 examples of
long barrows and long cairns, their counterparts in the uplands, are recorded
nationally. 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.

Despite partial excavation, the West Barrow long barrow represents a fine
example of its class which is known to contain archaeological and
environmental evidence relating to the monument and the landscape in which it
was constructed. This monument represents an example of a group of chambered
long barrows commonly referred to as the Cotswold Severn group, named after
the area in which they occur. The barrow is unusual for its class in that its
northern quarry ditch remains visible as an earthwork.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
Excavation by Huntley in 1700,
Mention of unburnt human remains,
Mention of urns from chambers,

Source: Historic England