Historic England removes two burial sites from the 'at risk' register

Both sites are barrows which are funerary monuments dating from the late Neolithic to the Late Bronze Age.

The construction is of earth or rubble mounds. Both of the burial sites were formerly at risk from arable processes but this year, due to improved management are now classified as being low risk. 

A cluster of more than 390 examples have been identified on Cranborne Chase. 

Barrow at Winterbourne (Image: Historic England)

The Bowl barrow is located north of The Spectacles, Steeple Langford. Situated on the upper south west facing slop of a prominent ridge, it overlooks the River Wylye. The barrow is a circular mound which measures up to 30 metres in diameter and is 0.4 metres in height. 

The Long Barrow at Winterbourne, Pitton, and Farley is an oval mound measuring up to 29 metres long by 24 metres wide and is up to 1 metre high. It has been called a long barrow or two confluent bowl barrows and is known locally as 'Crow's Rump'.

Read more: Hundreds of trees to be planted in Salisbury

Salisbury MP John Glen made reference to the historic sites update on the social media site X. 

A positive update from @HistoricEngland today, publishing their Heritage at Risk Register for 2023.

Over the past year, 203 historic sites have been saved by dedicated volunteers and community groups.

In Salisbury, two sites have been saved, and no new sites were added. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/aPlLredKIf

— John Glen MP (@JohnGlenUK) November 9, 2023

The south west has more archaeological sites than any other region with more than 1000 sites in Wiltshire. 159 of those sites in the county are at risk and 133 are scheduled monuments.