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Summary

Neolithic long barrow to the east of Top Buildings, Normanby le Wold.

Full description

Long barrow to the east of Top Buildings. The mound is 255ft long (north to south), 120ft wide and 6ft high. It is under pasture and there is a clump of trees on the top. {1}

A grass-grown and tree-covered long barrow, much spread and softened in profile. Its maximum height is 1.5m. {2}{3}{4}

A trench was excavated through part of the mound in 1983, as part of a Sheffield University transect survey. Very little was found, however, and the excavator was not convinced that the mound in fact represented a long barrow. {5}{6}

Although the mound of Top Buildings Long Barrow has been degraded, it survives as a substantial earthwork visible from the nearby road. The limited archaeological investigations of 1983 were inconclusive but a small quantity of worked flint was found, demonstrating that the land around the mound was a focus of attention and activity during the Neolithic period. No other excavation is known to have taken place and the monument is, therefore, thought to retain significant rare archaeological deposits which will provide information regarding the construction of the mound, and the chronological sequence of burial rites. Environmental evidence will also survive beneath the mound and in the buried ground surface and the ditch, which will provide valuable information relating to the landscape in which the monument was constructed and used. The barrow is one of a number of burial monuments associated with the valley of the Otby Beck which rises in the nearby Normanby Dales, and with the prehistoric trackway now formalised as High Street. The association of these monuments demonstrates the ritual significant of this chosen location and poses wider questions concerning prehistoric settlement patterns in the area. {7}{8}

<1> HBMC, AM 7, - (Scheduling Record). SLI4067.

<2> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Card Index, TF 19 NW: 10 (Index). SLI2344.

<3> Lincolnshire County Council, Sites and Monuments Record Card Index, TF 19 NW: AC (Index). SLI2881.

<4> Paul Everson, 1975-90, RCHM, TF1396/3: 2934/16 (1979) (Aerial Photograph). SLI196.

<5> A.B. Page (ed.), 1984, 'Archaeology in Lincolnshire and South Humberside, 1983' in Lincolnshire History and Archaeology, vol.19, p.105 (Article in Serial). SLI707.

<6> Patricia Phillips, 1989, 'Top Buildings 'Long Barrow' Excavation' in Archaeology and Landscape Studies in North Lincolnshire, part.1, chapter.14, pp.173-9 (Article in Monograph). SLI78.

<7> ENGLISH HERITAGE, 1996, REVISED SCHEDULING DOCUMENT 27885, MPP 23 (Scheduling Record). SLI4316.

<8> Dilwyn Jones, 1998, Gazetteer of Neolithic Elongated Enclosures and Extant Long Barrows in (Historic) Lincolnshire, - (Index). SLI2302.

Monument Types

• MOUND (Unknown date)
• ARTEFACT SCATTER (Early Neolithic to Late Neolithic - 4000 BC to 2351 BC)
• LONG BARROW (Early Neolithic to Late Neolithic - 4000 BC to 2351 BC)

Associated Finds

• LITHIC IMPLEMENT (Early Neolithic to Late Neolithic - 4000 BC to 2351 BC)

Associated Events

• Excavation at Top Buildings Long Barrow

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument

Sources and further reading

Search results generated by the HBSMR Gateway from exeGesIS SDM Ltd.