Bodsham Long Barrow

Also known as:
Shrub's Wood, Bodsham
Nearest town:
Ashford (9km WSW)
OS reference:
TR099458
OS sheets:
179, 189
Latitude:
51° 10' 20.24 N
Longitude:
1° 0' 10.95 E
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Bodsham Long Barrow by GLADMAN

The great oval mound still survives to an appreciable height...

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN May 23, 2023
Image of Bodsham Long Barrow by GLADMAN

The great oval long barrow from the approx west..

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN May 23, 2023

Articles

Bodsham Long Barrow

L
Lottie Sep 5, 2003

Visited on 31.08.03. There are several paths running through this little woodland, best thing is to park in the layby on the right-hand-side of the road to Bodsham where the public footpath sign is pointing along the edge of a field, but instead of walking down that footpath walk up the road, past a cottage, to the bridleway and turn right down there, we’re pretty sure we found it – about a 5 min walk and set back from the right hand side of the track.

The barrow is quite large around 50 ft long and 2 meters high but very overgrown by trees and other assorted undergrowth. It felt great to find it but I can see why JC would have chosen Julieberries Grave for the book over this site. The entrance would seem to be at the track end of the barrow but there aren’t really any specific signs of this. There’s a large burrow, badgers? dug deep into the top of the barrow about half way along and is about the only spot for sitting down.

Miscellaneous

Bodsham Long Barrow
Long Barrow
GLADMAN
GLADMAN May 23, 2023

I first came here some 18 years ago... leaving without ‘postable’ photos, owing to the highly overgrown state of the monument at that time. I did not, however, leave imageless... those vivid pictures that remain within the mind long after a compelling event has (apparently) passed.

Yeah, such was the vibe that day that I am compelled to visit once again following an extended sojourn within not-too-distant King’s Wood. To see if things have changed in the interim? As it happens, they haven’t. At least not to any great extent, the great ‘oval mound’ still remains cloaked in foliage, the vibe still incredibly intense within the welcoming bosom of so much vegetation.

Historic England has the following to say:

“The monument in Shrub’s Wood, an oval barrow or burial mound dating from the Neolithic period, includes not only a large earthen mound but also the broad ditches which flank the mound. The mound itself is orientated E-W, measures 38m in length, up to 19m in width and survives to an impressive 2m above the level of the surrounding land at its highest point. On either flank of the mound, and extending along its full length, are ditches from which the earth was quarried for its construction. Having been largely infilled by erosion of the mound and the ditch sides, these slightly curving ditches are now broad and shallow, measuring typically 5m across but only 0.5m deep. The ditch on the southern side is the more easily visible.”

So, to translate: the long barrow is still some 125ft long – which is pretty long, to be fair – and over 6ft high. Yeah, the inhabitants of Bodsham are lucky people, methinks.

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