Investigation into stone-age barrow found near Midhurst

An investigation is under way into the significance of an early bronze-age barrow which has been revealed on the edge of a sandpit near Midhurst. The large mound, dating back to around 2000 BC, is set to be toppled as more sand is extracted from the huge pit at Minsted, on land owned by All Souls College, Oxford.

 

A large early Bronze Age barrow at Minsted near to Midhurst, Sussex, may be at risk of destruction due to the extraction of sand from the quarry there.  The barrow belongs to a cemetery of 5 barrows, with another already having  being subsumed by the quarrying.  The county archaeologist Mr. Mills says that  none of the planning conditions licensing the pit had required the historic mound to be preserved. The only alternative was to fully record its location.

 

Bronze Age barrows have a habit of disappearing due to many causes, farming, quarrying and new housing estates, so recording by destruction is sadly the only way we ever get to hear of them!

 

More here from the Midhurst and Petsworth Observer.