Ancient Monuments

History on the Ground

This site is entirely user-supported. See how you can help.

Long barrow 100m north of Oldfield Wood

A Scheduled Monument in Avening, Gloucestershire

We don't have any photos of this monument yet. Why don't you be the first to send us one?

Upload Photo »

Approximate Location Map
Large Map »

If Google Street View is available, the image is from the best available vantage point looking, if possible, towards the location of the monument. Where it is not available, the satellite view is shown instead.

Coordinates

Latitude: 51.687 / 51°41'13"N

Longitude: -2.2024 / 2°12'8"W

OS Eastings: 386101.450296

OS Northings: 198714.693089

OS Grid: ST861987

Mapcode National: GBR 1NC.211

Mapcode Global: VH954.SV0L

Entry Name: Long barrow 100m north of Oldfield Wood

Scheduled Date: 18 January 1949

Last Amended: 9 August 1994

Source: Historic England

Source ID: 1009161

English Heritage Legacy ID: 22910

County: Gloucestershire

Civil Parish: Avening

Traditional County: Gloucestershire

Lieutenancy Area (Ceremonial County): Gloucestershire

Church of England Parish: Avening Holy Cross

Church of England Diocese: Gloucester

Details

The monument includes a long barrow situated on a plateau 100m north of
Oldfield Wood in an area of the Cotswold Hills.
The monument has a mound composed of small stones. It is orientated south east
to north west, with maximum dimensions of 44m by 30m and a maxmimum height of
c.0.45m. The mound is now crossed by a stone boundary wall orientated north
east to south west, 17m from the western end of the barrow. On the western
side of the boundary wall the mound has a maximum height of c.0.25m. Flanking
the mound on either side is a quarry ditch from which material was taken
during the construction of the monument. These ditches are no longer visible
at ground level as they have become infilled over the years, although they
will survive as buried features c.5m wide.
Excluded from the scheduling are the fence posts relating to the field
boundary, although the drystone wall and the ground beneath all these features
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.

Despite reduction in its height by cultivation, the long barrow 100m north of
Oldfield Wood survives comparatively well and will contain archaeological and
environmental evidence relating to the monument and the landscape in which it
was constructed.
This monument forms part of a wider group of long barrows commonly referred to
as the Cotswold Severn type, named after the area in which they occur.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
Mention of interpretation by Witts,

Source: Historic England

Other nearby scheduled monuments

AncientMonuments.uk is an independent online resource and is not associated with any government department. All government data published here is used under licence. Please do not contact AncientMonuments.uk for any queries related to any individual ancient or schedued monument, planning permission related to scheduled monuments or the scheduling process itself.

AncientMonuments.uk is a Good Stuff website.