![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cc/Long_bredy_bank_barrow_dorset.jpg/300px-Long_bredy_bank_barrow_dorset.jpg)
A bank barrow, sometimes referred to as a barrow-bank, ridge barrow, or ridge mound, is a type of tumulus first identified by O.G.S. Crawford in 1938.
In the United Kingdom, these take the form of a long, sinuous, parallel-sided mound, approximately uniform in height and width along its length, and usually flanked by ditches on either side. They may be the result of a single phase of construction, or be the result of the addition of one or more linear extensions to the bank of a pre-existing barrow. Although burials have been found within the mound, no burial chambers as such have been identified in bank barrows. These ancient monuments are of middle Neolithic date.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/22/Pentridge2_long_barrow_dorset.jpg/800px-Pentridge2_long_barrow_dorset.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7e/Broadmayne_bank_barrow_dorset.jpg/300px-Broadmayne_bank_barrow_dorset.jpg)
Fewer than ten bank barrows remain in the United Kingdom. Examples may be found at
- Maiden Castle, Broadmayne and Martin's Down in Dorset; and
- Long Low near Wetton in Staffordshire.
References and further reading
- Ashbee, Paul (1984). The Earthen Long Barrow in Britain: An Introduction to the Study of the Funerary Practice and Culture of the Neolithic People of the Third Millennium B.C. Geo Books. ISBN 0-86094-170-1.
- Sharples, Niall M (1991). English Heritage Book of Maiden Castle. B. T. Batsford Ltd. ISBN 0-7134-6083-0.