Rodmarton Long Barrow, Gloucestershire

I suggested to Helena that we visit Cherington Lake, as we hadn’t been there for quite some time and both enjoy walking near water. Cherington is a small hamlet on the flat farmland about seven miles from home. But the lake is down in the nearby valley formed by a small stream where it was dug in 1740 in a local estate. I suggest a quick look at Helena's blip where she describes our visit. She is a better writer than me! 

Afterwards I drove us on another couple of miles to near Rodmarton where this morning I discovered there was an ancient long barrow which I’d not heard of before. I thought I knew of all the megalithic sites in our area, which shows me that I’ve much to learn. Sometimes referred to as Windmill Tump, Rodmarton Long Barrow is more than 5,500 years old built in the early Neolithic period. This Neolithic chambered tomb with an enigmatic 'false entrance' is a burial site, formed of a stone tumulus with a mound covering the site of graves, in the form of a cairn, located in Gloucestershire. It lies to the west of the village of Rodmarton, south of the road between Cherington and Tarlton.

In my blip you can see Helena just leaving the site  which we both liked. Strangely ti was rather too busy for our liking and we’ve decided we shall return for another visit in due course.

I’m adding some information from the English Heritage website, and a link to a short video where Timothy Darvill, a local expert guides you around the site with good drone footage to add to the experience! 

Watch a short video introduced by Timothy Darvill.

It seems that the site was used for burials well after the Neolithic period, as Roman pottery and coins of Claudius Gothicus (AD 168–70) have been found there.

The barrow was excavated in the late 19th century, and also in 1939 when 13 skeletons were found as well as leaf-shaped arrowheads. When two trees fell down in the great storms of 1987 they revealed a previously unknown chamber situated to the south-west of the north chamber. A large capstone and the bones of a child were also discovered.

Set on a gentle slope immediately below the crest of a ridge, the chambered long barrow is trapezoidal in plan and measures 187 feet (57 metres) by 89 feet (27 metres). The mound is made up of small stones to a height of 9 feet (2.75 metres) and was originally flanked by ditches where the material to construct the barrow had been quarried.

At the eastern end of the mound there is a forecourt flanked by two projections and a so-called false entrance consisting of two standing stones and a stone lintel, blocked by a slab. This entrance seems to have been constructed at the same time as the forecourt with which it is associated but it does not provide any access into the monument.

There are at least three stone-lined chambers and the northern one was where the skeletons were discovered. The southern chamber is approached by an entrance from the side of the mound via a short passage. Animal bones and human remains have been recovered from this chamber. The barrow is a fine example of the Cotswold Severn type.