Details

The monument includes a Neolithic long barrow situated on level ground 140m
north west of Cooks Cottages. The barrow is not visible at ground level,
having been largely reduced by ploughing over time, but is visible on aerial
photographs as an oval enclosure defined by a single continuous ditch
measuring 75m long and 25m wide. The ditch, from which material was quarried
to construct the mound, has become infilled over time, but both the ditch and
the remains of the mound will preserve archaeological remains including traces
of the Neolithic land surface.
The barrow was first identified from aerial photographs during the course of
the Thames Valley Mapping Project undertaken by The Royal Commission on the
Historical Monuments of England. A Romano-British settlement approximately
350m north of the barrow and another long barrow 180m to the north are the
subject of separate schedulings.

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 long barrow 140m north west of Cooks Cottages survives well as buried
deposits. Despite reduction of the barrow mound by arable cultivation over the
years the remains of the mound and ditches will contain archaeological and
environmental evidence relating to their construction and the landscape in
which they were built. In addition it is likely that the remains of the mound
will protect a buried land surface which will provide further information
about the landscape prior to the construction of the barrows.
The presence of a second long barrow within 200m enhances the importance of
the monument.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
Interpreted by Ms V Fenner, RCHME APU, Thames Valley National Mapping Project, (1995)
Multiple AP's assessed by RCHME APU, RAF, OS, USAF, Private. All at NMR, 63 vertical and oblique prints (1941-1990),
NMR SU 69 SW 88, NMR, NMR Monument Detail, (1993)
Title: Ordnance Survey 1:10000 SU 69 SW (NMP overlay)
Source Date: 1993
Author:
Publisher:
Surveyor:

Source: Historic England