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Manton Down

Long Barrow (Destroyed)

Miscellaneous

The Manton Down Long Barrow (Neolithic Wessex Map, No.11).
This tomb, sometimes referred to as Doghill Barrow, was again noted by Aubrey, though not I believe by Stukeley, and it received passing mention from Colt Hoare. It is here planned for the first time and is a short oval cairn (with no trace of side ditches) about 60 by 35 feet. At the south-east, higher, and slightly broader end, are remains of a small rectangular chamber, two stones of which remain upright, while others are prone beneath the fractured capstone, which leans on the remaining upright of the south-west side. The dimensions of the chamber are uncertain, but its internal measurements can hardly have been more than six feet square. There is one outlying stone at the southern corner of the mound which may be the remains of a peristalith otherwise vanished—Colt Hoare observed that in his day " the mound appears to have been set round with stones", and some remained until about 1913. The small squarish chamber opening more or less directly on to the facade is paralleled in the Cotswolds at, for instance, Randwick, while St. Nicholas (Glam.) is not dissimilar. In Dorset, the Grey Mare and her Colts seems to have an analogous plan, though here access to the chamber must have been made from the side. At Manton it is difficult to judge without excavation, but a frontal entrance seems reasonable to assume from the stones as they now remain.

Notes on some North Wiltshire chambered tombs
By Professor Stuart Piggott F.S.A.
W.A.M. 52 Page 60-61 - 1946
Chance Posted by Chance
17th July 2010ce
Edited 17th July 2010ce

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