Stony Littleton Long Barrow, Nr Wellow. Somerset.

Reported 07 - 06 - 10

This extensive formation, which must be the first in a crop of beans, lies only yards from the Stoney Littleton long barrow near Wellow in North-East Somerset, south of Bath. Reported on June 8, it seems to measure 200-300ft across and is quite neat in appearance, bearing in mind the nature of the crop, which is three or four feet tall and is sprouting with young, green beans. The thick, rigid stems of the crop seem to have been bent below ground level and up-ended to lie horizontally – it’s likely a great deal of pressure would have been needed to achieve this.

The 5,000-year-old long barrow, on a hillside overlooking the Wellow Brook about half a mile from the village of Wellow as the crow flies, and orientated to the midwinter solstice sunrise, is special not only because it is the only known monument of its kind with three pairs of side chambers inside, but because of the splendid ammonite cast on the standing stone on the lower part of the left-hand door jamb of the entrance-way This unique feature of the long barrow is a deliberate decoration with a naturally occurring form, a foot in diameter, the remains of an extinct marine mollusc protected by a flat-coiled spiral shell. The stone bearing the fossil must have selected specially for the portal. Such fossils of these creatures are found mainly in Jurassic and Cretaceous deposits dating from 208 million to 65 million years ago, and Stoney Littleton is situated on the south-western extension of what is known geologically as the Jurassic Belt.

Report by Geoff Ward © 2010

Diagram by J Goldner © 2010

Photo by Geoff Ward © 2010

Stony Littleton Long Barrow,