Hazleton Long Barrows Long Barrow View all content for Hazleton Long Barrows

Details of long barrows on Pastscape SP 07191882 and SP 07261889 Long Barrows (NR) The southern barrow measures 165 ft by 80 ft by 3 ft high, and is oriented SE/NW. Two orthostats visible in Witts' time near the SE. The northern barrow measures 180 ft by 75 ft, is oriented ENE/WSW and its present height is 6 ft at the west end and 3 ft at the east end, which was the higher in Witts' time. (2-5) Ploughing has almost completely destroyed the southernmost of these two long barrows and has reduced the other in both width and length. (6) Two barrows, the long barrow at SP 07191883 has been reduced by ploughing to a roughtly oval mound 50.0m long by 26.0m wide and up to 1.2m high. There is a concentration of fragmented stone towards the SE end which may mark the chamber noted by Witts. (3) No trace of the orthostats remain. The barrow at SP 07261889 although damaged by ploughing on the east, is in much better condition and the west portion appears undisturbed. The overall dimension are 58.0m long by 24.0m wide, and up to 1.7m high at the west end and 0.8m high at the east. Present appearance suggest that the barrow faced SW, however Witts' observation that the NE end was the higher in his time introduces some doubt on this. Neither barrow exhibits any visible trace of side ditches. Resurveyed at 1:2500 on AM. (7) SP 073189: Hazelton North long cairn was excavated in 1979 by A Saville. The cairn was trapezodial in shape and survives to a length of 51 metres with a maximum width of 18 metres. It was found to be a blind entrace type of the Cotswold-severn tomb with a pair of opposed lateral chambers. The blind entrance is non-orthostatic and is marked by a shallow concavity in the terminal dry stone walling. The cairn is orientated approximately west-east with its broad end situated to the west. Fieldwalking in the surrounding area produced lithic debris, including leaf arrowheads and a polished stone axe fragment. A Roman coins was found on the barrow's surface. (8-9) SP 073 189. Total excavation of Hazleton north barrow took place between 1979 and 1982. The original length of the barrow was shown to have been between 54-55m, whilst its maximum width had been 19m in the west and 9m in the east. Its structure was composed of dump-deposits of soil, marl and rubble divided into 19 cellular units by internal revetment walling. These units lay to either side of a central axial revetment aligned E-W. This cellular core was then revetted by an outer dry-stone wall, doubled at the western end to form the 'horns' of the courtyard, (which was bare of features other than a central hearth). The 2 burial chambers were located near the centre of the cairn, c25m E of the horns. They were similar in plan, comprising a 'sock-shaped' arrangement of an elongated entrance passage with an eastward, right-angled, turn into a roughly rectangular chamber. The chamber walls were built of contiguous orthostats with supplementary dry stone work where gaps existed. The cairn was flanked to the N and S by quarries from which much of the material for its construction had been obtained. The quarry to the north was 2.2m deep X 28m wide, whilst that to the south was 2.2m deep and over 20m wide. Their primary fills contained red deer antlers, (not converted into picks), fragments of Abingdon Style pottery and in the S quarry, a hearth. From within the cairn 23 skulls were recovered, (although the remains of a total of up to 30 individuals may have been represented). Ages and sexes were equally distributed between both chambers. A small number of items found within the chambers included a flint axe fragment, 2 bone beads and fragments of a undecorated cup or bowl. The final inhumation on the N side was accompanied by a large flint core under the right elbow and a quartzite pebble hammerstone adjacent to the left hand. An analysis of radio carbon dates for the skeletal evidence suggests a period of use for the barrow spanning only 300 years (c3800 - 3500 BC) [see source 12]. The buried soil beneath the cairn contained a midden-like deposit to the W of the burial chambers. This included fragments of a carinated vessel, carbonised seeds and nutshells, post/stakeholes and an associated hearth lay to the West of the midden suggesting early Neolithic domestic activity. A concentrated scatter of 55 mesolithic microliths was discovered in the same area. Exploratory trenching of Hazleton South Cairn revealed that this was also a side chambered cairn by that it had suffered badly through cultivation. [see source 10]. (10-12) Two Neolithic long barrows are visible on aerial photographs as earthworks in a field between Pen Hill and the village of Hazleton. The northernmost barrow was totally excavated in 1979-82. These features were mapped from aerial photographs as part of The Cotswold Hills NMP project. The northernmost barrow, which was completely excavated in 1979-1982 was centred at SP 0728 1891. Prior to excavation it was visible as an extant earthwork of trapezoid shape on aerial photographs and measured approximately 63m WSW to ENE and 22m NNW to SSE. The southernmost barrow is centred at SP 0720 1884, and measures approximately 51m north-west to south-east and 21m south-west to north-east. This barrow is oval shaped in plan, and remains an extant earthwork (14-15).

Posted by Chance 10th June 2014ce

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