MSO8629 - Bronze Age cist burial in Langridge Wood (Monument)

The site of a Bronze Age burial cairn in Langridge Wood, disturbed and partly removed for road material in 1820 and later forestry works. A skeleton found in a stone lined cist was reinterred in Treborough churchyard. The cist is still in place.

A few years ago a walled grave was found by workmen digging for road material in Langridge Wood on the northern declivity of Brendon Hill near Treborough. The grave was 7 foot 6 inches long by 2 foot 6 inches wide. The sides were composed of stones. It was covered by a large stone and contained a skeleton. [1,2] Withycombe No. 4, SS 0149 3734, the remains of a small round cairn 10 paces diameter and 2 feet high, which was removed for road material in 1820. Skeleton was re-interred in Treborough churchyard. [3] The open cist with its capstone laid alongside is at ST 0147 3734. The associated cairn has been so extensively robbed that its limits are unrecognisable. Cist surveyed at 1:2500. [4,11] (SS 0141 3733) Cist (NR). [5] ST 013 373. Cist and barrow in Langridge Wood. Scheduled. [6] A large barrow 45 feet in diameter and 3 feet high, covered in small bushes, heather etc. There are loose stones visible in places. In the centre hollow is a cist 6 feet by 2.5 feet with large capstone 5 feet square still in situ. The cist is 2 feet deep and oriented east to west. [9] The mound and cist are undisturbed although masked by vegetation. [10] The cist is lined with 4 stones forming a trapezium 155 by 190 by 72 centimetres internally. The cairn is still visible although degraded. It is approximately 7 metres in diameter and 30 centimetres high, being most obvious at the north. [11] The cist lies at ST 0141 3733, as published on the current 1:2500 Ordnance Survey map [13]. The site is in Langridge Wood, an area now managed as coniferous plantation. Langridge Wood was mixed woodland in the 19th century [14]. The cist comprises a rectangular grave, lined with four slate slabs. It measures 1.9 to 2 metres long and is 0.85 metres deep. An irregularly shaped capstone partially covers the cist. It is surrounded by a low, roughly circular mound of material, 14 metres north to south,10 metres east to west and 0.6 metres high (maximum). A small oval mound immediately to the north of the cist is probably a recent spoil mound. The mound has been disturbed by forestry operations, particularly to the west and east. A photograph published in 1970 [15] shows the cist as completely open. The process of moving the capstone so that it partially covers the cist has damaged it, and the western slab has fallen into the grave. The capstone is suffering some frost damage. The cist and mound were surveyed at a scale of 1:100 as part of the RCHME Exmoor project. [16-18] Scheduling affirmed with new national number (was Somerset 465) on 24 April 2002. [19] The Scheduled Monument Condition Assessment of 2009 gave the site a survival score of 3. [20] The site was surveyed in July 2015 as part of the 2015 Exmoor Scheduled Monument Condition Assessment. It was given a survival score of 6. [21] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [22]