Details

The monument includes a long barrow, surviving as an earthwork, set across a
gentle south-facing slope 500m NE of the river Itchen. The barrow mound is
orientated ENE-WSW and is rectangular in plan with maximum dimensions of 69m
long by 36m wide at the centre where it stands to a height of 1.7m. Flanking
quarry ditches run parallel to the north and south sides of the mound and
survive to a width of between 5 and 7.5m. Both appear as shallow earthwork
features and areas of darker earth.
Partial excavation of the NE quadrant of the mound in 1944 revealed a flat
bottomed ditch 6m wide and 2.4m deep. Finds from the excavation included a
sherd of Neolithic pottery, flint flakes and animal bones.

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 important concentrations of monuments of this type in the
country. This example is regarded as important as, despite limited
excavation, it survives particularly well.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Godwin, G N, The Civil War in Hampshire, (1904)
Milner, A B, Some Earthworks in Mid-Hampshire, (1944)
Smith, I F , Long Barrows in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, (1979)

Source: Historic England