The Excavation of a Long Barrow in Holdenhurst Parish, near Christchurch, Hants (No. 183 of Neolithic Wessex Map)

Abstract

It is hardly necessary to point out the archaeological importance of the Christchurch region. As Mr Crawford showed in 1912, here was the great port of prehistoric Wessex, with the Avon and the Stour joining to flow into the sea by Hengistbury Head and providing natural waterways to Salisbury Plain and Cranborne Chase respectively. The results of Mr Bushe-Fox's excavations at Hengistbury in 1912, the contents of the well-known Druitt Collection, and above all the admirable work of preservation and publication carried out by Mr J. B. Calkin show that throughout the prehistoric periods the valley gravels above the Stour and the plateau gravels and sands now occupied by the town of Bournemouth constituted an area of optimum settlement. Most remarkable however is the presence of a long barrow, the subject of this report, on the gravel terrace above the Stour in Holdenhurst parish, and only 35 feet O.D.