Details

The monument includes a long barrow set on a prominent ridge top in an area of
undulating chalk downland. The barrow mound is ovoid in plan and orientated
WNW-ESE. It survives to 42m in length, is 30m wide and stands 1.5m high.
Although no longer visible at ground level, flanking ditches, from which
material was quarried during the construction of the monument, run parallel to
the north and south sides of the mound. These have become infilled over the
years but survive as buried features c.3m wide. A hollow in the central area
of the barrow mound represents partial excavation by antiquarians, probably in
the 19th century. Finds included three human skeletons.
The post-and-wire fence which traverses the monument from east to west is
excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath it 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 Liddington long barrow is important as, despite partial
excavation in the 19th century, it survives comparatively well and has
potential for the recovery of further archaeological remains in addition to
environmental evidence relating to the period in which the monument was
constructed. The importance of the site is enhanced by the survival of
numerous Bronze Age burial monuments in the immediate area. Combined, these
give an indication of how settlement of the area continued between the 5th and
2nd millennia BC.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
'Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine' in Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine, , Vol. 49, (1942), 27

Source: Historic England