Details

The monument includes a long barrow orientated south east-north west, which
lies on the crest of a hill within the post-medieval deer park known as Lodge
Park. It is visible as a barrow mound 55m long, 36m wide and 2.5m high at its
highest point. At the south eastern end two upright stones (or orthostats)
support a slipped lintel or capstone. The two uprights are 1.5m apart,
measuring 0.7m by 0.4m and 0.3m thick, while the capstone is 2.1m long by 0.9m
wide and 0.3m thick. Two parallel ditches from which material was excavated
for the construction of the barrow lie one on either side of the mound to the
north east and south west. These ditches have become infilled over the years
and are no longer visible at ground level, but survive as buried features 3m-
4m wide.
Lodge Park long barrow was first documented as an earthwork on the 1st edition
Ordnance Survey map of 1882, and has been described by a number of
commentators since that date. The earliest description, by Witts in 1883,
indicates that the condition of the monument has changed little since that
time. It is not known how the orthostats and lintel at the south eastern end
came to be exposed, but the generally undisturbed condition of the mound
suggests that it may have been due to collapse arising from discrete
structural instability rather than unrecorded excavation. The function of
these stones is unknown, although it has been suggested that they may
represent an entrance into a terminal burial chamber, or perhaps a blind
entrance.
In 1995 the site was subject to a resistivity survey by Dr Alastair Marshall.
The mound was shown to be composed of dense rubble with the revetment only
slightly discernible. An axial wall is present along most of the mid-line and
tranverse walls also appear to be present, suggesting a cellular construction.

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.

Lodge Park long barrow survives well in an area which has been under pasture
since the 17th century, and is closely associated with a round barrow to the
south east which is the subject of a separate scheduling. The barrow mound
will contain evidence for chambers, burials and grave goods, which will
provide information about prehistoric funerary practices and about the local
community at that time. The mound will also preserve environmental evidence
in the buried ground surface and give information about the landscape at the
time of the barrows construction. The mound and its associated ditches will
also contain environmental evidence, in the form of organic material, which
will relate both to the monument and the wider landscape.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Parry, C, Sherborne Estate, Gloucestershire: Archaeological Survet 1993-94, (1995), 87-88
O`Neil, H E, Grinsell, L V, 'Proc of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Arch Soc' in Gloucestershire Barrows, , Vol. LXXIX, (1960), 78

Source: Historic England