"Discarded long barrow, Manton Down, as dumped in 1996 - the end (or just another phase?) of a long story of abuse of a chambered long barrow which was a Scheduled Ancient Monument supposedly protected by law; but it made the big mistake of being in the way of agricultural land improvement in the 1950s and has subsequently been totally destroyed. This presumably final resting is about a quarter mile (c.400m) from the place where these stones were built into a tomb some 6000 years ago, a tomb which was respected by prehistoric farmers when cultivating their fields 2000-3000 years later. And 3000 years later again - progress? What progress?"
Text under a photo of the destroyed barrow in "An English Countryside Explored - The Land of Lettice Sweetapple" by Peter Fowler and Ian Blackwell
The Manton Down Long Barrow (Neolithic Wessex Map, No.11).
This tomb, sometimes referred to as Doghill Barrow, was again noted by Aubrey, though not I believe by Stukeley, and it received passing mention from Colt Hoare. It is here planned for the first time and is a short oval cairn (with no trace of side ditches) about 60 by 35 feet. At the south-east, higher, and slightly broader end, are remains of a small rectangular chamber, two stones of which remain upright, while others are prone beneath the fractured capstone, which leans on the remaining upright of the south-west side. The dimensions of the chamber are uncertain, but its internal measurements can hardly have been more than six feet square. There is one outlying stone at the southern corner of the mound which may be the remains of a peristalith otherwise vanished—Colt Hoare observed that in his day " the mound appears to have been set round with stones", and some remained until about 1913. The small squarish chamber opening more or less directly on to the facade is paralleled in the Cotswolds at, for instance, Randwick, while St. Nicholas (Glam.) is not dissimilar. In Dorset, the Grey Mare and her Colts seems to have an analogous plan, though here access to the chamber must have been made from the side. At Manton it is difficult to judge without excavation, but a frontal entrance seems reasonable to assume from the stones as they now remain.
Notes on some North Wiltshire chambered tombs
By Professor Stuart Piggott F.S.A.
W.A.M. 52 Page 60-61 - 1946
The sorry tale of the long barrow on Manton Down; from The Times, April 29th, 1953.
An inspector from the Ancient Monuments Department of the Ministry of Works is to visit Manton Down, near Malborough, Wiltshire, to-morrow to examine the site of the 4,000-year-old Long Barrow, which has been destroyed.
Mrs. Todd, wife of Mr. G.E. Todd, a farmer and racehorse trainer who lives at Manton House and owns 1,000 acres of the surrounding countryside, to-day confirmed that the barrow was on her husband's property - in a cattle enclosure about a quarter of a mile from the house. She informed your Correspondent that the damage had apparently been done last year when the farm was let to Mr. J. E. King, a farmer who now lives at Tuffley Park, Gloucester. The enclosure was then in a bad state, overgrown with thorn bushes and infested with rabbits.
Mr. King told your Correspondent to-day that he had had the bushes removed by a bulldozer last summer. This was to make the rough land ready for ploughing, since he intended to sow it with corn. He said that the Wiltshire agricultural executive committee at Trowbridge had known of his intention; in fact, they had had the enclosure measured for him and were going to give him a grant to plough the land. He said he saw several large stones, but they were too big for his men to move. He said he was not told of any burial mound on the land.
Mrs. Todd also told your Correspondent that neither she nor her husband knew anything about the barrow. When he bought the property in 1947 he was not given or told of any documents relating to the barrow.
A spokesman in the Ancient Monuments Department of the Ministry of Works, which today received a report from Mr. N. Thomas, curator of Devizes Museum, said that "a most serious view" was taken of the destruction. He said there was no reason for ignorance on the part of a property owner that there was a scheduled monument on his land. Various steps were taken to let an owner know that a monument had been scheduled. He was given notice of the fact and received a map showing where the monument was.
Manton Long Barrow was scheduled as an ancient monument in 1922.
The next day an article in the paper included this:"Mr G.E.Todd, of Manton House.. said later that the inspector had advised him to replace the earth round a group of large sarsen stones which surround a solitary elder bush at one end of the barrow.."
It makes you wonder if any stones remain to be seen at the site. I have taken the grid reference (SU14787135) and alternative name from 'Long Barrows of the Cotswolds and Surrounding Areas' by Timothy Darvill (2004).
Having said that, I spotted this thread http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/forum/?thread=8482
which mentions that the stones were moved as recently as 1996? and could even be in Fyfield now (quite a way from their source).