The Soulton Long Barrow and Ritual Landscape is a modern memorial in the form of a

long barrow Long barrows are a style of monument constructed across Western Europe in the fifth and fourth millennia BCE, during the Early Neolithic period. Typically constructed from earth and either timber or stone, those using the latter material repres ...

in the

Soulton Soulton Hall is a country house in Shropshire, England, located two miles east of the town of Wem, on the Soulton Road. Sir Rowland Hill's hall The manor of Soulton is pre-Norman in origin. What can be seen externally of the present hall i ...

landscape near Wem in

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

, England. The barrow contains niches for the placement of

cremation Cremation is a method of Disposal of human corpses, final disposition of a Cadaver, dead body through Combustion, burning. Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India ...

urns. It is also intended for wider celebration of life and community activity. The structure is a sequence of stone chambers under an earthen mound, and was begun in 2017, with a principal stone being laid in the spring of 2018, and an early stone being added by writer and historian

Tom Holland Thomas Stanley Holland (born 1 June 1996) is an English actor. His accolades include a British Academy Film Award, three Saturn Awards, a Guinness World Record and an appearance on the ''Forbes'' 30 Under 30 Europe list. Some publications h ...

Inspiration

The monument is inspired by

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

barrows built around 5,500 years ago, and following the constructions of the

Long Barrow at All Cannings The Long Barrow at All Cannings is a modern barrow near All Cannings, Wiltshire, inspired by the neolithic barrows built 5,500 years ago. It was the first barrow built in Britain in thousands of years. The structure was commissioned by farmer ...

, Wiltshire and the

Willow Row Barrow A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or ''kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones buil ...

St Neots St NeotsPronunciation of the town name: Most commonly, but variations that ''saint'' is said as in most English non-georeferencing speech, the ''t'' is by a small minority of the British pronounced and higher traces of in the final syllable ...

, Cambridgeshire. It takes inspiration from among other monuments

Bryn Celli Ddu Bryn Celli Ddu is a prehistoric site on the Welsh island of Anglesey located near Llanddaniel Fab. Its name means 'the mound in the dark grove'. It was archaeologically excavated between 1928 and 1929. Visitors can get inside the mound through ...

Barclodiad y Gawres Barclodiad y Gawres (Welsh for "The Giantess's Apronful") is a Neolithic burial chamber between Rhosneigr and Aberffraw on the south-western coast of the island of Anglesey in North Wales. It is an example of a cruciform passage grave, a notab ...

, and Stoney Littleton Long Barrow. Developing the barrow involved collaboration with archaeologists at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

The gate for the barrow was designed by Giles Smith, winner, in the Assemble Collective, of the 2015

Turner Prize The Turner Prize, named after the English painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist. Between 1991 and 2016, only artists under the age of 50 were eligible (this restriction was removed for the 2017 award) ...

. The Barrow's first chamber was opened for use in summer 2018. A second phase of the barrow's development was begun and completed in the winter of 2019.

Commentary

In April, 2019, the monument was covered on an episode of BBC

Countryfile ''Countryfile'' is a British television programme which airs weekly on BBC One and reports on rural, agricultural, and environmental issues in the United Kingdom. The programme is currently presented by John Craven, Adam Henson, Matt Baker, T ...

, being visited by

Matt Baker Matthew James Baker (born 23 December 1977) is a British television presenter. He co-presented the children's television show ''Blue Peter'' from 1999 until 2006, BBC One's ''Countryfile'' since 2009 and ''The One Show'' from 2011 to 2020, wit ...

and Ellie Harrison. Soulton Long Barrow, autumn 2018

The monument was included in the 2020

Architecture Foundation Founded in 1991, The Architecture Foundation is Britain's oldest independent architecture centre. It examines contemporary issues in architectural theory and practice, through a public programme that has involved exhibitions, competitions publicatio ...

exhibition "Congregation", in St Mary Magdalene, Paddington. The exhibition looked at, "the changing nature of sacred architecture in Britain through the presentation of 23 buildings designed in the past decade", Edwin Heathcote of the ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...

'' reviewed this exhibition and said of the project "Most esoteric of all, yet also strangely sympathetic, is the Soulton Long Barrow, a neo-neolithic mound of stone and earth designed to store the cremated remains of... any religion or none". In June 2020 the

included the monument in a lecture event as part of its 2020 100 Day Studio event. Commentators have described this barrow has been described as being part of a "Stone Age tradition being resurrected in Britain," with " other eight sites are planned across the country" The

Architectural Review ''The Architectural Review'' is a monthly international architectural magazine. It has been published in London since 1896. Its articles cover the built environment – which includes landscape, building design, interior design and urbanism � ...

reviewed the monument in April 2020.

Henge Amphitheater

In 2020, partially as a response to the crisis in live performance and theatre resulting from the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, a hengeiform monument, called "The Sanctuary", an outdoor performance area was added in front of the barrow. This was inaugurated by the

National Youth Theatre The National Youth Theatre of Great Britain (NYT) is a youth theatre and registered charity in London. Its aim is to develop and nurture young people through creative arts and theatrical productions. Founded in 1956 as the world's first youth th ...

, with their first live in person performance since the restrictions following the lockdown that was brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. The play was a brand new work called "The Last Harvest". Local parishes used this space for community nativity events during the COVID-19 restrictions.

Soulton Standing Stones

There is a sequence of

standing stones A menhir (from Brittonic languages: ''maen'' or ''men'', "stone" and ''hir'' or ''hîr'', "long"), standing stone, orthostat, or lith is a large human-made upright stone, typically dating from the European middle Bronze Age. They can be foun ...

, signaling the route to the barrow from Soulton Road. Three

megalith A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. There are over 35,000 in Europe alone, located widely from Sweden to the Mediterranean sea. The ...

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

are located on the access route to the barrow which were added in autumn 2017. The stone for these

monolith A monolith is a geological feature consisting of a single massive rock (geology), stone or rock, such as some mountains. For instance, Savandurga, Savandurga mountain is a monolith mountain in India. Erosion usually exposes the geological for ...

s, as with the barrow itself, came from Churchfield Quarry,

Oundle Oundle () is a market town on the left bank of the River Nene in North Northamptonshire, England, which had a population of 5,735 at the time of the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census. It is north of London and south-west of Peterborough ...

, near

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

. There is no deliberate alignment beyond way-marking for these standing stones.

Covid Stone

In 2020, a standing stone, with an alignment to the setting sun on the

winter solstice The winter solstice, also called the hibernal solstice, occurs when either of Earth's poles reaches its maximum tilt away from the Sun. This happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere ( Northern and Southern). For that hemisphere, the winte ...

, was added to the

ritual landscape Ritual landscapes or ceremonial landscapes are large archaeological areas that were seemingly dedicated to ceremonial purposes in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages. Most are dated to around 3500–1800 BC, though a mustatil in Arabia has been dated to ...

to acknowledge the suffering of the families impacted by the

Coronavirus Pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

. This was discussed in a podcast for Manchester Metropolitan University's BRIC-19 AHRC-funded research project looking at how British ritual-makers have responded to COVID-19.

Modern Henge Monument

In March 2020, plans were announced to build a modern henge monument close by the barrow.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official website

BBC Coverage of the first chamber nearing completion
Buildings and structures in Shropshire Barrows in England COVID-19 pandemic monuments and memorials