English Heritage has launched a campaign to save Wiltshire's archaeological sites from the farmer's plough.

Ripping Up History aims to highlight the dangers of modern farming methods in a bid to preserve thousands of fragile remains throughout the UK.

In Wiltshire a large prehistoric field system on Burderop Down has been largely destroyed because of cultivation.

Rob Iles, inspector of ancient monuments at English Heritage, said: "A number of monuments in the Stone-henge and Avebury World Heritage Site are annually damaged by ploughing.

"However, this area has also seen some significant improvement recently as a result of agreements with farmers ensuring that many scheduled monuments are taken out of cultivation."

Neolithic long barrows, or ancient tombs containing stone chambers and bones, are our oldest visible monuments, dating back 5,000 to 6,000 years.

In the Cotswold area there was a group of 38 long barrows and about half of them have been damaged or destroyed by ploughing.

The campaign's key actions include an over-haul of current laws, which are ineffective in protecting scheduled monuments from cultivation.

For more visit www.english-heritage.org.uk.