Reasons for Designation
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.
Crippetts long barrow survives well, despite an area of localised disturbance
at the eastern end, caused by 18th century excavations, and is set in an area
of prehistoric activity, with two round barrows about 300m to the south east.
The mound will contain evidence for stone chambers, burials and grave goods
which will provide information about prehistoric funerary practices and about
the size of the local community at that time. The barrow mound will also
preserve environmental information in the buried original ground surface,
predating the construction of the barrow and giving an insight into the
landscape in which the monument was set. In addition the mound and its
associated ditches will contain archaeological information and environmental
evidence in the form of organic material which will relate both to the
monument and the wider landscape.
Details
The monument includes a long barrow, orientated east-west located immediately
below the crest of a hill in the Cotswolds, 680m north east of Dryhill Farm.
It is visible as a barrow mound 70m long by 34m wide and ranging in
height from 2m to 6m. At the eastern end of the mound is an excavated
depression, measuring about 20m east-west and 14m north-south, which contains
a flat stone 1.8m long. This is thought to be the capstone of a chamber opened
during the late 18th century. Two parallel ditches, from which material was
excavated during the construction of the monument, lie on either side of the
barrow mound to the north and south. These ditches are no longer visible at
ground level, having become infilled over the years, but survive as buried
features about 3m wide.
Rudder, writing in 1779, recorded that the barrow had been opened some years
before. At a depth of 4.9m a burial chamber measuring 2.1m by 1.2m was
discovered, containing a skeleton and a `helmet, which was so corroded by rust
that it fell to pieces on the slightest touch'.
The noticeboard is excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath
it 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.
