Nympsfield

Cotswold-Severn Cairn (Chambered Long Barrow) - Gloucestershire

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SO 79394 01327 (GPS 42min)
Visited Aug 1995/ June 2000

The barrow at Nympsfield is a sad ruin today, the mound is almost totally gone, only a slight rise and the suspicion of the horned forecourt remain. The layout of the burial chambers is still evident, a three chamber, cruciform, transepted arrangement. The covering mound was carefully constructed with internal stabilising walls and a perimeter revetment of drystone walling.The barrow seems to have avoided major destruction until quite recently, surviving the middle ages thanks to the belief that it had been a leper house. In modern times however, the mound was plundered for material for road construction, so much so, that the original length of the barrow is now unknown. 
Excavated three times, in 1862, 1937 and 1974, the remains of about 17 individuals, children and adults, were found in the chambers along with pottery and flint artefacts.

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