From Willy Howe we headed to the gorgeous village of Wold Newton. Here the Gypsey Race flows freely and indeed supports a rather nice duck pond in the centre of the village. Our plan was to find the Wold Newton Barrow otherwise known as Ba'l Hill, a place identified in the TMA but only marked down as 'tumulus' on the OS map. Finding it was not hard. It lies in a field on the outskirts of the village it can be easily reached by going through a gate at the end of the street and following the race all of 50 yards to it. The Hill is not spectacular but I enjoyed being here much more than Willy Howe. The race in full flow and in such close proximity made it a bit more special. I could have done with taking a rest and enjoying a cup of tea of its summit however that would have involved forward thinking and I'm not great with that. From the top of the mound, its neighbour Willy Howe's tree covered summit can easily be seen.
Ba'l Hill is smaller than Willy Howe, but seems to have suffered less. It's not cluttered with trees and shrubs like Willy, so you can easily climb it and then get a good 360 degree view of the surroundings (unlike atop Willy). Willy is clearly visible in the distance. The mass of farmhouses and fences spoils the atmosphere a bit, but it's still a cool place. It's all pasture land, and on my first visit it was covered in sheep, who fled at me and my brother's approach. My second visit found around 5 large bulls, who refused me entry, and i was thankful for my zoom lense.
After Willy Howe I found Ba'l Hill a bit of a let-down. It was fairly small compared to Willy and Duggleby. We have mounds this size on the North York Moors.
I couldn't really see it's place in the landscape.
Coolest of names, but left me confused.
A Mr R Cousins of Wold Newton told Leslie Grinsell that Throwl Egg used to be played here on Shrove Tuesdays.
"Men and youths used to have hard-boiled eggs, which they 'throwled' (rolled) on the grass. The eggs were dyed, and he whose egg rolled the farthest, or longest, was the winner."
(John Nicholson, Folklore of East Yorkshire, 1890; quoted by Grinsell in 'Ancient Burial Mounds of England' 1936).
Ba'l Hill has been dated to the Neolithic, so it is unusual in that it is a very early round barrow. Like the extremely close Willy Howe it lies right next to the Gypsey Race stream. Unlike Willy Howe it did contain burials. (Burl suggests that Ba'l Hill (or Wold Newton, as he refers to it) is another Silbury-style mound with no primary burial, but the EH record disagrees, as seen below).
According to the Scheduled Monument EH record, the mound was investigated by J R Mortimer in 1894. He found the cremated remains of a child at its centre and the skeletons of 3 adults, a child and a young adult on the original ground surface. Another skeleton of a woman was accompanied by a newly-made flint arrowhead.
There was also a pig skull and bones, and fragments from Neolithic food vessels. Also discovered were bones from dogs, wolves, grouse, Irish elk, goats, oxen, and deer, as well as frogs, toads, and water voles. Quite an intriguing menagerie, you'll agree. Were they all things people had eaten or could some be animals whose remains had been there already naturally? (and isn't an Irish Elk one of those extinct beasts with the ludicrous antlers?). Or maybe some are neither, but bones/meat deliberately placed inside for some 'ritual' reason. Hmm.
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