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Description

Summary A Neolithic long barrow, surviving as a crop mark, one of a number of long barrows in Lincolnshire identified as a distinct regional grouping of monuments. Reasons for Designation The long barrow located 830m to the south-west of Nimbleton Plantation in Stainby-le Vale, is scheduled for the following principal reasons: * Survival: as a clearly-defined crop mark representing the burial practices, beliefs and social organisation amongst early prehistoric communities; * 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 period, 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 proximity to the Bully Hill long barrow to the south-west (NHLE entry 1013905) and the long barrow SSW of Stainton Hall (NHLE entry 1013903). 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. The 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, the mound having 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 long barrow 830m south-west of Nimbleton Plantation was first scheduled on the 12th June 1996. Air photography, enhanced by digital elevation modelling in 2008 and 2016 has provided additional detail about the extent and location of the monument, and further information has been derived from the air photography stage of the long barrows project in 2017. Details Principal Elements A Neolithic long barrow situated some 830m south-west of Nimbleton Plantation, approximately 150m to the north of the B1225 (High Street). It lies to the north-east side of the head of the valley above a series of springs that feed the source of the River Rase. The barrow is sited below the crest of the hill at 136m OD. It is one of a group of similar monuments associated with the valley of the River Rase and with the prehistoric trackway now formalised as High Street. Description The monument includes the buried remains of a Neolithic long barrow which have been identified through air photography. It is located on the northern slopes of the valley of the River Rase, about 800m south-east of Goody Orchin Plantation, and is visible as cropmarks (an area of enhanced crop growth caused by higher moisture levels retained by the fills of underlying archaeological features) and soilmarks on air photographs and as a low earthwork on digital elevation models of 2008 and 2016. The barrow survives as a rectilinear enclosure, defined by a buried ditch, aligned north-west to south-east and measuring 68.8m in length by 23m wide. Its north-western end is rounded whilst its south-eastern end has right-angled corners. The earthwork mound is very low and spread, being wider than the footprint of the ditched enclosure, slightly displaced to the south-west, the displacement presumed to be as a result of modern ploughing practices. In 1972 vertical aerial photographic imagery shows the soilmarks of medieval ridge and furrow cultivation appearing to go over and truncate the barrow. Important archaeological deposits will be preserved on the buried ground surface beneath the mound and within the enclosure, and in the fills of the ditch. These will provide rare information concerning the dating and construction of the monument and the sequence of mortuary practices at the site. The same deposits will also retain environmental evidence illustrating the nature of the landscape in which the monument was set. Extent of Scheduling The site of the monument includes a 5m boundary around the archaeological features, considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation. Sources Books and journals Field, D, Earthen Long Barrows, The Earliest Monuments in the British Isles, (2006) Last, J (ed), Beyond the Grave, New Perspectives on Barrows, (2007) Woodward, A, British Barrows A Matter of Life and Death, (2000) Jones., D, 'Long Barrows and Neolithic Elongated Enclosures In Lincolnshire. An Analysis of the Air Photographic Evidence.' in Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, , Vol. 64, (1998), 83-114

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