Neolithic long barrow 480m north east of Valley House

Summary

Neolithic long barrow located 480m north-east of Valley House.

Reasons for Designation

The Neolithic long barrow 480m north-east of Valley House is scheduled for the following principal reasons:

* Survival: as the buried remains of a prehistoric long barrow confirmed to survive from geophysical survey and visible as a clearly defined crop mark;

* Potential: for the buried archaeological deposits which retain considerable potential to provide evidence relating to social organisation and demographics, cultural associations, human development, disease, diet, and death rituals. Buried environmental evidence can also inform us about the landscape in which the barrows were constructed;

* Period: as one of very few monument types dating to the early prehistoric, it is highly representative of the period;

* Rarity: as an example of a monument type which is rare nationally and one of very few monument types to offer insight into the lives and deaths of early prehistoric communities in this country;

* Group value: for its close proximity to other contemporary and spatially-related scheduled monuments, most notably a long barrow 575m north-north-west of Moon Wood (NHLE 1013921) and another long barrow 495m north of Moon Wood (NHLE 1013923), with which it forms a group known as Deadmen’s Graves; the western and central barrows retain their mounds and are thought to be the only such pair of mounded long barrows now visible as earthworks in Lincolnshire.

History

Long barrows and chambered tombs are the main forms of Neolithic funerary monument, constructed from before 3800 BC with new monuments continuing to be built throughout the 4th millennium BC. Where they are precisely dated it appears their primary use for burial rarely lasted longer than about 100 years. Generally comprising long, linear earthen mounds or stone cairns, often flanked by ditches, they can appear as distinctive features in the landscape. They measure up to about 100m in length, 35m in width and 4m in height, and are sometimes trapezoidal or oval in plan. Earthen long barrows are found mostly in southern and eastern England and are usually unchambered, although some examples have been found to contain timber mortuary structures. Regional variation in construction is generally a reflection of locally available resources. Megalithic or stone, chambered tombs are most common in Scotland and Wales, but are also found in those parts of England with ready access to the large stones and boulders from which they are constructed, especially the Cotswolds, the South-West and Kent. There are around 540 long barrows recorded nationally.

Long barrows of the Lincolnshire Wolds have been identified as a distinct regional grouping of monuments in which the flanking ditches are continued around the ends of the barrow mound, either continuously or broken by a single causeway towards one end. A small number survive as earthworks but the majority are known from crop marks and soil marks where no or very low mounds are evident on the surface. Not all Lincolnshire long barrows had mounds and our current understanding of Neolithic mortuary practices in this part of the country is that the large barrow mound was in fact the final phase of construction which was not reached by all monuments. Previously many of the sites where only the ditched enclosure is known have been interpreted as a barrow where the mound has been degraded or removed by subsequent agricultural activity. In some cases the ditched enclosure (mortuary enclosure) represents a monument which never developed a mound.

The Neolithic long barrow 480m north-east of Valley House is one of a group of three closely associated long barrows known as Deadmen's Graves. It is known to have been a notable landscape feature in the first half of the C19, however since that time the mound has been reduced by ploughing and is no longer discernible on the ground. Recent aerial survey has demonstrated that the long barrow survives beneath the present ground surface, with cropmarks representing a large portion of the buried ditch. Geophysical survey (2017) has revealed a north-east to south-west aligned U-shaped ditched enclosure, with an apparent opening to the north-east. No archaeological investigation is known to have taken place.

Details

PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS: The cropmark remains of a Neolithic long barrow, located around 55m AOD at TF 44696 71956 approximately 480m north-east of Valley House, and to the north-west of Claxby St Andrew. The cropmark is situated just below the crest of a south-facing slope above the valley of Burland Beck and follows the contour of the hill being aligned north-north-east to south-south-west. It lies on relatively level ground which rises very gently to the north and slopes down to the south.

DESCRIPTION: The buried remains of a Neolithic long barrow were identified by aerial photography as an oval-shaped enclosure defined by a single ditch measuring around 39m long and 22m wide, aligned north-east to south-west. The north-eastern end appears to be defined by a thinner ditch than the rest of the enclosure. Geophysical survey undertaken in 2017 shows a U-shaped ditched enclosure, the encircling ditch measuring around 2.5m in width, with an apparent opening to the north-east as is typical in other Lincolnshire long barrows. No trace of any barrow mound can be seen on aerial photographs or on the ground. Investigations elsewhere in the county indicate that, although the mound has been reduced, this area, together with the fills of the buried ditch, will likely contain significant mortuary, ritual and constructional remains.

The barrow is one of three long barrows within a single field along the same hill contour, formally recorded together as NRHE 355624 and collectively known as Deadmen’s Graves. Two are surviving to some extent as earthworks: the scheduled long barrow 575m north-north-west of Moon Wood (NHLE 1013921) lies around 220m west-north-west of the monument; and the long barrow 495m north of Moon Wood (NHLE 1013923) lies approximately 65m south-west of the monument.

EXTENT OF SCHEDULING: The scheduled area is marked on the attached map and includes a 5m buffer zone around the barrow which is considered necessary for the support and preservation of the monument. There are no exclusions from the scheduling.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

27924

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Phillips, CW, Excavation of Giants' Hills Long Barrow, Skendleby, Lincs. in Archaeologia, Vol. 85, (1936), 37-106
Woodward, A, British Barrows A Matter of Life and Death, (2000)
Field, D, Earthen Long Barrows, The Earliest Monuments in the British Isles, (2006)
Last, J, Beyond the Grave, New Perspectives on Barrows, (2007)
Jones, D, Long Barrows and Neolithic Elongated Enclosures in Lincolnshire: An Analysis of the Air Photographic Evidence, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 64, (1998), 83-114
Allen, T, The History of the County of Lincoln, Vol II, (1834), 169

Websites
Lincolnshire Heritage Explorer, ‘Monument record MLI43657 – Deadmen’s Graves 3’, accessed 29 January 2024 from https://heritage-explorer.lincolnshire.gov.uk/Monument/MLI43657

Other
Plot of cropmark, National Mapping Programme: Lincolnshire, (1992)

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