Details

The monument includes the earthwork and below ground remains of a long
barrow and a bowl barrow, situated 470m north west of Sanctuary Farm. The
barrows lie on the false crest of a west facing slope and form part of an
extensive pattern of burial mounds scattered across the Hampshire
chalkland. Some 700m to the south east of the monument are two more long
barrows, which are the subject of separate schedulings.
The long barrow's mound is orientated SSE-NNW and is rectangular in plan,
measuring 52m long and 13m wide. The mound stands to a maximum height of
0.4m. Flanking quarry ditches run parallel to the east and west sides of
the mound. These are visible on the ground as areas of darker earth with a
width of approximately 6m. The barrow is said to have been investigated by
the men of HMS Ariel during the war of 1939-45 and its south eastern tip
was investigated by the Winchester Archaeology Office in 1986. The latter
explorations revealed that the ditches were 1.8m deep, the mound had
probably been revetted and contained a secondary cremation burial of the
Romano-British period.
About 50m to the north west is a bowl barrow, whose mound stands up to
0.3m high with a 21m diameter. Its encircling ditch, from which earth was
dug in the construction of the mound, has become infilled over the years
but can be seen as a dark soilmark on the ground, or more clearly as a
cropmark (an area of enhanced growth resulting from higher levels of
moisture retained by the underlying archaeological feature) on aerial
photographs. It measures approximately 4m wide.
Aerial photographs also show that the round barrow was incorporated into a
later prehistoric field system, and acts as a boundary marker at the top
corner of two fields. The north western tip of the long barrow was cut by
the same field system, suggesting that the long barrow's mound had been
reduced significantly by the time of the field boundaries' construction.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
It includes a 10 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.

Bowl barrows, the most numerous form of round barrow, are funerary
monuments dating from the Late Neolithic period to the Late Bronze Age,
with most examples belonging to the period 2400-1500 BC. They were
constructed as earthen or rubble mounds, sometimes ditched, which covered
single or multiple burials. They occur either in isolation or grouped as
cemeteries and often acted as a focus for burials in later periods. Often
superficially similar, although differing widely in size, they exhibit
regional variations in form and diversity of burial practices. There are
over 10,000 surviving bowl barrows recorded nationally (many more have
already been destroyed), occurring across most of lowland Britain. Often
occupying prominent locations, they are a major historic element in the
modern landscape and their considerable variation of form and longevity as
a monument type provide important information on the diversity of beliefs
and social organisations amongst early prehistoric communities. They are
particularly representative of their period and a substantial proportion
of surviving examples are considered worthy of protection.
The long barrow and bowl barrow 470m north west of Sanctuary Farm are
well preserved, despite some damage due to cultivation and partial
excavations on the long barrow. The standing and buried deposits will
contain a wealth of archaeological evidence relating to the barrows'
construction, the manner and duration of their use, and the landscape in
which they were set. As the site contains Neolithic, Bronze Age and later
prehistoric remains, these deposits will provide information on the
development of the site over a considerable timespan, while the
combination of the barrows and the later prehistoric field boundary
provides an insight into the prehistoric spatial organisation of the area.

Source: Historic England