Details

The monument includes a long barrow orientated north west-south west and
located along the crest of a Greensand ridge. Viewed in plan the mound is 70m
long by 15m wide, with straight parallel sides and rounded ends. The sides are
steep and the top fairly flat; the overall height is about 1.5m. Flanking the
mound on its north east and south west sides are ditches from which material
was quarried during the construction of the monument. Although these have
become largely infilled over the years they survive as slight earthworks 1m
wide and 0.3m deep.

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 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.

The Bury Farm long barrow survives well in an area where few long barrows
survive as earthworks.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
Hunting 68:9/7403-4, 74:8/2615-6, 76:12/1025-6, 81:13/9372-3,
RAF: 541/148: 4100-1,
Simco, A, Beds. 7487, (1982)

Source: Historic England