Ancient Monuments

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Long barrow 400m south of Sanctuary Farm

A Scheduled Monument in South Wonston, Hampshire

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Coordinates

Latitude: 51.1224 / 51°7'20"N

Longitude: -1.3239 / 1°19'26"W

OS Eastings: 447410.968739

OS Northings: 136115.506484

OS Grid: SU474361

Mapcode National: GBR 858.G48

Mapcode Global: VHD0X.01FX

Entry Name: Long barrow 400m south of Sanctuary Farm

Scheduled Date: 29 April 1960

Last Amended: 17 October 1990

Source: Historic England

Source ID: 1015983

English Heritage Legacy ID: 12092

County: Hampshire

Civil Parish: South Wonston

Built-Up Area: South Wonston

Traditional County: Hampshire

Lieutenancy Area (Ceremonial County): Hampshire

Church of England Parish: South Wonston

Church of England Diocese: Winchester

Details

The monument includes a long barrow situated in private gardens just
below the crest of a gentle south-east facing slope. The mound is
well-preserved under rough vegetation and lawn, although to the east
end it has been disturbed by an irregular hole, partly infilled, and
by a sunken air-raid shelter. The mound is orientated ENE-WSW and is
rectangular in plan. It is 94m long, 20m wide and survives to a height
of 2m at the east end and 1.4m at the west end. The mound is flanked
to the north and south by quarry ditches.
These are not visible as surface features except in the arable field
to the north of the mound where they survive to a depth of 0.2m and
appear as areas of darker earth. Elsewhere they are known to survive
below ground to a width of c.5m. The sheds and garages at the west
end of the mound are excluded from the monument although the ground
beneath them 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 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 regarded as important as, despite some localised
damage, it survives particularly well and is one of four long barrows in the
immediate area. Such groups rarely survive.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Smith, I F , Long Barrows in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, (1979), 64-5

Source: Historic England

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