Details

The monument includes a long barrow set on level ground just above the floor
of the Wylye Valley. The barrow bound is ovate in plan and is orientated
SW-NE. It has dimensions of 50m long and 20m wide and stands to a height of
1.5m. Flanking the NW and SE sides of the barrow mound, though no longer
visible at ground level, are ditches from which material was quarried during
construction of the monument. These have become infilled over the years but
survive as buried features c.3m wide. The concrete base for a water trough
which stands towards the south end of the barrow mound is excluded from the
scheduling although the ground beneath 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. The Polebridge Farm barrow survives comparatively well and has
potential for the recovery of archaeological remains and environmental
evidence relating to the period in which the monument was constructed. The
importance of the site is enhanced by the fact that other long barrows survive
in the area giving an indication of the scale and intensity with which the
area was occupied during the Neolithic period.

Source: Historic England