Badshot Lea Long Barrow

Badshot Lea Long Barrow, also known as Farnham Long Barrow, was an unchambered long barrow located near the village of Badshot Lea in the south-eastern English county of Surrey. It was probably constructed in the fourth millennium BCE, during Britain's Early Neolithic period. Archaeologists have established that the monument was built by pastoralist communities shortly after the introduction of agriculture to Britain from continental Europe. Although representing part of an architectural tradition of long barrow building that was widespread across Neolithic Europe, the Badshot Lea Long Barrow is the only known example in Surrey. The nearest examples are the Medway Megaliths, clustered around the River Medway in Kent, and the long barrows of Sussex. Built out of earth, the long barrow consisted of a tumulus flanked by side ditches. A timber post was embedded into the eastern end of the mound. By the mid-1930s, chalk quarrying adjacent to the long barrow had destroyed much of its southern side. In 1936, local resident W. F. Rankine discovered ox bones and stone arrow-heads in the vicinity of the site. 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.