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Liddington Warren Farm

Long Barrow

Miscellaneous

Opening of two barrows on Liddington Warren Farm, N. Wilts, 1893.

The first barrow opened is close to a green road leading from Shepherd's Rest to Marlborough. It is a bowl-shaped barrow, and as it has been ploughed over for many years it has spread over a considerable space, its diameter from north to south being about 68ft., and from east to west 80ft., whilst its height is now only about 4ft. A trench was started on the south-east side, and at 13ft. from the centre the edge of a cairn of sarsens was reached, 3ft. in depth and built up on the original surface-level. The stones were so evenly built in that it was with difficulty that a pickaxe could be forced between them. Following these along they were found to rise within 6in. of the surface of the tumulus. When these had been removed to a depth of 4ft. the original chalk level was reached, when a cist was found in the centre full of burnt hones, on the top of which was the rim of an imperfectly burnt urn, and a small turned conical button pierced under its base in pulley fashion with a hole for the string, apparently of Kimmeridge shale, similar in shape to specimens now in the Stourhead Collection at Devizes.

The second barrow lies in a ploughed field near the 6th milestone from Swindon on the Hungerford Road. It seems really to consist of two barrows joined together. A trench was dug in the eastern most of the two, beginning on the south-east side. At 3ft. from the centre the bottom of an "incense cup" was discovered, and when within 1ft. of the centre the chalk on the original surface level was found to be of a dirty brown colour and was rammed down so hard that the pickaxe would hardly enter it. On the surface of this chalk, and not in a cist, under the centre of the barrow was a heap of burnt bones. Nothing else was found.


A. D. Passmore, Swindon
W.A.M. No. 27 pages 175 to 176
Chance Posted by Chance
28th February 2011ce

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