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Long Barrow General information
In the southwest corner of Mercia,
in the Cotswold Severn area, there are 200 known examples of barrows. This area has the highest concentration in the country.
Most were constructed in the early and middle Neolithic period from earthen or drystone mounds with flanking ditches and acted as funerary and ritual monuments.
Later, Norse invaders who settled following the raids also utilised barrows/cairns for burials inland.
Barrows are the communal burial places for Britain's early farming communities. However, often only certain parts of the human skeleton were selected for internment which makes for some interesting speculation as to why.
Nympsfield Long Barrow, Gloucestershire
Constructed in the Neolithic period.
There are two projecting horns and large forecourt likely for ritual.
Scattered remains of 22 human skeletons, along with pottery, flint arrowheads and perforated dog whelk shell pendant have been excavated. (A dog whelk is a predatory sea snail found around the coasts of Europe and in the northern west Atlantic coast of North America.)
The skeleton of a child was enclosed in a stone cist in the northern burial chamber. The Barrow was in use for two centuries.
Local legends advise that the site was used by lepers.
The stones are fabled to move around and roll down and up the nearby hills of their own volition.
Another local legend reports that a man stole a stone however the stone wailed so much that he was forced to return it.
There are tales of ghosts that haunt the area. One tale reports sighting a man holding a sword or club which fades away.
