Hi !

That carved stone you found on top of this mound is probably carved with an 'M'. I've put a decent photograph of it in my website gallery ( www.davidaspinall.co.uk/gallery/gallery.htm ) - the pictures behind the thumbnails are about 6Mb, so watch out for that. There are other carved stones on the moor, particularly the boundary stones marked by William de Ferrers, the early feudal owner of Bolton. If we include this one there are two marked with W, an A with a cross, and an M. They correspond with the old boundary, which was rationalised probably by the Boundary Commissioners and enclosure of the moors. I guess a diligent researcher should be able to turn up more carved boundary markers. De Ferrers was granted Bolton-le-Moors in 1251 and died in 1254 so they can be dated quite closely.

It's not unusual for a tumulus to be used to define a parish boundary - there must be plenty of examples - and, back in the 1200's, people were burning wood and turf for fuel. Coal wasn't exploited until a few centuries later. My dad has photocopied the geological survey map for North Bolton and there don't seem to be coal measures near the surface on that part of the moor. (This is by his reading of it and I've not seen it yet). It would explain why there are no coal pits there and also kibosh the explanation that the mound is a spoil heap.

It's not a watertight proof but it's a genuine one. The depression, at the top of the mound, corresponds closely with what may be expected if a burial chamber, at the base, had collapsed. The carved stone would then have been on the top of the barrow and become displaced by the subsidence. 'M' probably represented 'Margaret' who is the (now forgotten) patron saint of Bolton. There's some interesting pictures of Rivington Pike in my gallery too ...

Thanks