Details

The monument includes the earthwork and buried remains of an Early Neolithic
long barrow known as Cromwell's Grave, located c.85m above sea level, 300m
west of Hoe Hill Farm, overlooking the Waithe Beck on the gentle, west facing
slope of the Swinhope Valley. The barrow is aligned east-west and is roughly
rectangular in shape, measuring 50m long by 17m wide. It stands to a maximum
height of approximately 3m, sloping down from the eastern end. The barrow
mound supports a number of beech trees and is situated within a copse enclosed
by a field boundary hedge. Archaeological investigation in 1984 confirmed the
existence of a quarry ditch c.1.5m deep by 6m wide situated between 4m and 8m
from the mound. It further demonstrated that one of the earliest activities on
the site was the digging of a marker ditch c.0.6m deep by 1.1m wide running
inside the quarry ditch, between 1.3m and 2.9m from the edge of the mound.
This marker ditch is considered to be the initial delineation of the area set
aside for ritual purposes. Geophysical surveys indicated that these ditches
continue around the western terminal. The section of the quarry ditch which
was excavated contained worked flint, pottery and animal bone from the
Neolithic period. A sample of the bone was radiocarbon dated to 3905-3640 BC,
confirming the barrow's construction in the Early Neolithic period. Other
finds included Beaker pottery, a tanged and barbed arrowhead and a glass bead.
The upper fills of the ditch and the surrounding buried ground surface
contained pottery and animal bone from later periods including the Roman,
Saxon and medieval. The monument is situated about 100m east of a similar,
smaller long barrow which is the subject of a separate scheduling.
Ash Hill long barrow lies approximately 1km to the south west of the monument.
Cromwell's Grave long barrow takes its name from the local tradition that it
is the burial place of a Roundhead soldier captured and killed on the mound.

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, generally with
flanking ditches. They acted as funerary monuments during the Early and Middle
Neolithic periods (3400-2400 BC), representing the burial places of Britain's
early farming communities, and as such are amongst the oldest field monuments
surviving 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 activities preceding the construction of the barrow mound,
including ditched enclosures containing structures related to various rituals
of burial. It is probable, therefore, that long barrows acted as important
spiritual sites for their local communities over considerable periods of time.
The long barrows of the Lincolnshire Wolds and their adjacent regions have
been identified as a distinct regional grouping of monuments in which the
flanking ditches are continued around the ends of the barrow mound, either
continuously or broken by a single causeway towards one end. More than 60
examples of this type of monument are known; a small number of these survive
as earthworks, but the great majority of sites are known as cropmarks and
soilmarks recorded on aerial photographs where no mound is evident at the
surface.
Not all Lincolnshire long barrows include mounds. Current limited
understanding of the processes of Neolithic mortuary ritual in Lincolnshire is
that the large barrow mound represents the final phase of construction which
was not reached by all mortuary monuments. Many of the sites where only the
ditched enclosure is known have been interpreted as representing monuments
which had fully evolved mounds, but in which the mound itself has been
degraded or removed by subsequent agricultural activity. In a minority of
cases, however, the ditched enclosure will represent a monument which never
developed a burial mound.
As a distinctive regional grouping of one of the few types of Neolithic
monuments known, these sites are of great value. They were all in use over a
great period of time and are thus highly representive of changing cultures of
the peoples who built and maintained them. All forms of long barrow on the
Lincolnshire Wolds and its adjacent regions are therefore considered to be of
national importance and all examples with significant surviving remains are
considered worthy of protection.

Cromwell's Grave long barrow is one of the largest and most complete monuments
of its kind known in Lincolnshire. Protected by the surrounding field
boundary hedge, the mound is undamaged by ploughing. The limited excavation
of 1984 has caused minimal disturbance to the monument yet provides valuable
information about the construction of the mound and ditches and the chronology
of the site's use. Rare and valuable archaeological evidence will be
preserved in and under the mound and in the fills of the ditches. Valuable
environmental deposits will also survive providing information illustrating
the nature of the landscape in which the monument was set. The surrounding
buried ground surface contains further evidence of activities continuing
around the barrow long after its construction. The association of Cromwell's
Grave with other similar monuments in the vicinity is of particular
significance, posing wider questions about the nature of Neolithic settlement
in the area.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Manby, T G, 'Scottish Archaeological Forum' in Long Barrows in Northern England, , Vol. 2, (1970)
Phillips, P, 'BAR' in Archaeology and Landscape Studies in North Lincolnshire, (1989), 10
Phillips, P, 'BAR' in Archaeology and Landscape Studies in North Lincolnshire, (1989)
Phillips, C W, 'Archaeologia' in The Excavation of the Giants' Hills Long Barrow, Skendleby, Linc, , Vol. 85, (1935), 37-106
Other
discussion with local landowner, Theobald, B, (1995)

Source: Historic England