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Description

Summary The buried remains of a Neolithic long barrow and adjacent round barrow. Reasons for Designation The long barrow and adjacent round barrow, to the north of Thorpe Farm are scheduled for the following principal reasons: * Survival: as clearly defined crop marks 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 some of the of very few monument types dating to the early prehistoric period, they are highly representative of the period; * Rarity: as an example of monument types which are 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: the survival of the two barrows in close proximity demonstrates the continual use of the landscape for ceremonial burial practices from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age. 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 long barrow to the north of Thorpe Farm survives as a U-shaped ditch and was identified via aerial photography in 2010 along with a probable round barrow to the south-east. The site is also visible on Ordnance Survey photographs taken in 1968. Details Principal elements: The barrow lies approximately 1km north-west of Skendleby and approximately 200m NNW of Thorpe Farm on the south side of the Skendleby to Dalby Road. The barrow is located near to the crest of a hill on land that slopes to the east and north-east towards an un-named stream. Description: The barrow has been mapped as a U-shaped ditch measuring approximately 50m by 22m tapering to 15m at the southern end. It is aligned NNE to SSW and is open at the northern end. The barrow is not visible on the ground to the naked eye and there is no trace of a mound that can be seen in the landscape. A probable round barrow is located 57m to the south-east of the long barrow but is not visible from the ground. Valuable archaeological deposits will be preserved on the buried ground surface and in the fills of the ditch. These have the potential to provide rare information concerning the dating and construction of the monument and the sequence of mortuary practices at the site. The same deposits may also retain environmental evidence illustrating the nature of the contemporary landscape in which the monument was set. This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 10 February to amend the cardinal points in location and description Sources Other Field, D 2006 Earthen Long Barrows, The Earliest Monuments in the British Isles. Jones, D. 1998 ‘Long Barrows and Neolithic Elongated Enclosures in Lincolnshire: An Analysis of the Air Photographic Evidence.’ Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 64, 1998, pp83-114. Last, J. (ed) 2007 Beyond the Grave, New Perspectives on Barrows. Woodward, A. 2000 British Barrows A Matter of Life and Death.

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