Details

The monument includes a long barrow and adjacent ritual areas situated in a
prominent position.
The barrow has a sand and stone mound orientated north west to south east,
measuring 42m in length. The mound is 22m wide and 2.4m high at the south end
and tapers to 12m wide and 1.5m high at the northern end. Access into the
mound and the burials it enclosed was provided by an entrance at the wider
south end. Evidence from excavated sites has demonstrated that rituals
relating to burial and remembrance of the dead were performed around this
entrance area. Traces of these rituals will be preserved in the area and may
include pits filled with debris and materials resulting from ceremonial
burnings.
There is a hollow in the top of the mound resulting from the part excavation
of the barrow. This investigation by Canon Greenwell in 1867 revealed that the
mound had an internal stone kerb along each side and uncovered a single burial
in a stone cist with associated artefacts.
The fence and small brick inspection chamber are excluded from the scheduling,
although the ground beneath these features 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.

There are few long barrows in northern England and, as a well preserved
example, this barrow retains significant information about its original form
and the burials placed within it. Evidence of earlier land use beneath the
mound will also survive. The area around the entrance will also retain remains
of ritual activities. There are later prehistoric round barrows in the wider
area and taken together this grouping offers important scope for the study of
the development of ritual and burial practice during the prehistoric period.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Kinnes, I A, Longworth, I H, The Greenwell Collection, (1985), 110
Vyner, B E, 'Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society' in The Excavation of a Neolithic Cairn at Street House, Loftus, Cld, , Vol. VOL 50, (1984), 151-195
Other
McElvaney, M, Howardian Hills AONB Historic Environment Study, (1994)

Source: Historic England