Badshot Lea Long Barrow

Archaeologists have established that the monument was built by pastoralist communities shortly after the introduction of agriculture to Britain from continental Europe.

An excavation was launched under the directorship of Alexander Keiller and Stuart Piggott, who sought to investigate the remains of the long barrow before it was destroyed by further quarrying.

[2] Standing on the western end of the Hog's Back ridge,[3] it was on a slope of Upper Chalk overlooking the Blackwater Gravels below.

[5] In 1987, the archaeologists David Field and Jonathan Cotton stated Badshot Lea Long Barrow was "the most impressive Neolithic feature yet located within the historic county" of Surrey.

[8] The next nearest group are the Medway Megaliths, a cluster of chambered long barrows in northwest Kent, which are located approximately 89 kilometres (55 mi) away.

[18] At the eastern end of the monument, the northern and southern ditches did not meet, but left a causeway measuring 12 metres (40 ft) between them.

[20] The excavators also noted that evidence for a very similar post had been found in the end of the Long Barrow 163A at Thickthorn Down in Dorset.

[19] In the primary silting in the surviving part of the southern ditch, excavators recovered three small fragments of unadorned pottery, which they attributed to a period they called "Neolithic A.

[23] In the same layer as the "Neolithic B" pottery from this ditch were also found the cutting edge of a broken polished flint axe and three stone scrapers.

Decoration was provided by twisted cord impressions as well as a series of criss-cross lines incised into the clay, probably with a flint flake.

[29] Prior to 1936, much of the southern ditch and the tumulus of Badshot Lea Long Barrow had been destroyed by a chalk quarrying operation.

[4] That year, plans were put forward to extend the quarry northward, obliterating what was left of the Neolithic monument.

[30] A resident of Badshot Lea, W. F. Rankine,[a] investigated the area due to be quarried, recovering ox bones and two leaf-shaped stone arrow heads.

[31] Permission to conduct the excavation on land that was part of Badshot Farm was provided by its owner, Mr Tice, who ensured that the quarrying was delayed to allow the archaeologists time to complete their investigation.