Using the GPS co-ordinates from TMA I took myself off to Felton Common in search of this Longbarrow. The GPS guided me to roughly the position as suggested, and after the best part of what seemed like an half mile walk through scrubland, I couldn't see anything about so a little searching led me too what I can only think is, or was, a derelict Longbarrow. IF this is the longbarrow, and I've every reason to believe it is, then it's probably in one of the worse conditions I have seen. The stones that are in the field would have made for a large Longbarrow in it's day. Felton Common is quite large and seems to be favourite for dog walkers. it's not a place where you should go to far out of your way to see though.
I will go back oneday because the common hold a secret that very few people probably know, until now, in that it's a very good place to watch planes landing because one is directly under the flight paths of very low incoming planes. Now what can be better to waste some time on than that!!!
[ST 5164 6484] Long Barrow [GT]. (1) A chambered long barrow - T 26 - on Felton Hill, is oriented slightly east of north. It measures 58 feet long and 43 feet wide, and is 4 feet high. The centre is depressed due to disturbance or a collapsed burial chamber. At the north end two stones probably mark one of the chambers. There is no trace of a surrounding ditch. In 1946 a number of large stones were thrown onto the mound. (2-4)
The feature described by Prof. Tratman is at ST 51626490. It is a disturbed, slightly oval, mound 1.0m high. It is difficult to differentiate between stones that have been dumped on its surface and those that are an integral part of its structure. A small earthfast slab set on edge at S.S.W. perimeter of the top of the mound appears to be an original feature, but it must be regarded as extremely doubtful evidence of a chamber.
The feature is probably a bowl barrow, but it could be windmill mound. It is certainly not a long barrow. Surveyed at 1:2500. (5)
It seems that this is not just your run-of-the-mill long barrow, but actually an example of an Oval Barrow: a rather rarer beast. There are only about 50 in England and this is one of only two in the Avon region. They are very old and originate from the early to middle Neolithic.
The description in EH's scheduled monument record (via Magic) says that the large stones (no doubt those in Vulcan's photo) at the northern end of the N-S mound are probably the remains of a burial chamber. (Smaller stones are interpreted as field clearance from the second world war period).
Other oval barrows that have been excavated have produced two different types of burials - bodies of adults and children laid directly on the ground before the mound was raised, and those of one or two adults laid in a pit beneath the centre of the mound. It's been discovered that some oval barrows were raised over still earlier monuments. The ditches around the barrows often contain deliberately placed pottery, flintwork and bone too, so it's clear that the spots were a focus for the community over a very long period of time.
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Posted by Chance
Posted by Rhiannon
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