Latest Fieldnotes

Visited 21.3.2009, via The Bulwarks. The Tump is a sorry vestige of a long barrow, merely a slightly raised mound with a circular excavation scar. It looks more like a round barrow than a long barrow, standing less than a metre tall in its highest part. It is also right next to a golf green and tee. Still, it made for a nice spot to sit and rest my aching feet and to watch the world go by.

Rather more intriguing is a deep pit immediately to the west of the barrow, with steps leading down to a great mound of very much long barrow proportions – I guess this must be a pillow mound of some kind, but would actually make for a much more impressive long barrow that the real thing!

Visited 21.3.2009 on walk from Nailsworth, via Avening and Minchinhampton. a lovely spring day brought loads of people out onto the common, flying kites, horse-riding, dog-walking and (inevitably) golfing, as the common is home to yet another Cotswold golf-course.

The earthworks known as The Bulwarks are mainly notable for their length (about 2 miles) rather than any huge scale. The common is covered in earthworks, ranging in date from the Neolithic Whitfield’s Tump, through the Bronze Age (a possible round barrow) to the medieval (various pillow mounds). The Bulwarks are generally attributed as an Iron Age construction.

Worth a visit, especially on a nice day combined with a trip to the ice-cream van.

Visited – well, passed – after a trip to The Longstone of Minchinhampton. Having read the others’ accounts of their visits, I was definitely sticking to a walk-by only, especially when a police helicopter landed in the next field!

The barrow is of a good size and from the SE (seen through the trees) looks pretty intact. It sits in the corner of a field and is surrounded by a fence. From the west (from the footpath) it becomes clear that the barrow has suffered extensive damage through excavation, like the corpse of an animal that’s had its innards eaten but the head and torso have been left intact.

The republican in me wants to point out various things about the age of the barrow compared to the age of the monarchy, etc. but what’s the point?

On, then, to Minchinhampton, The Bulwarks and Whitfield’s Tump.

A quick visit (21.3.2009) between The Tinglestone and Gatcombe Lodge long barrows. The area is swarming with members of the constabulary, in landrovers and a helicopter, so I guess there’s royalty nearby. I was mentally practising an “all property is theft” rant that I knew I would never use, but no-one bothered me.

What a great stone – like a weird piece of coral dropped in the middle of a field (probably by aliens). From here it’s into royal territory and Gatcombe Lodge.

Having read the other fieldnotes about policemen and still hoping to get to Minchinhampton and Whitfield’s Tump before making my way back to Nailsworth, I contented myself with a view from the lane. The standing stone for which the barrow is named is clearly visible amongst the trees – an attractive barrow in a nice setting, I would like to have spent longer here. But it’s off to the Longstone of Minchinhampton and Gatcombe Lodge.

Having failed to find Avening Burial Chambers, I left Avening and turned off onto the side road to Nag’s Head. A footpath heads north off this road, up a steep bank and then onto the golf course. Far too many Cotswold sites have become home to this pointless “sport”.

Luckily the footpath crossing the golf course goes straight past this barrow, which I imagine is simply an additional hazard. The barrow is quite large, topped with a few trees and surrounded by golf-related buildings, bits of machinery and a number of golfers who obviously thought I was some kind of weirdo, photographing a lump in the middle of the course.

If you can imagine the barrow in a pre-golf world (I know it’s difficult), it’s actually in a nice situation, overlooking the valley that Avening lies in. From here the footpath runs north, coming out onto the road near The Tinglestone long barrow, where I headed next.

Coming to Avening from the site of Oldfield Wood long barrow (21.3.2009) – I failed miserably to find the chambers along the side-road mentioned by Baza. I wandered round for a while, but gave up as time was getting on – Avening is a nice village, with an unexpectedly lovely Norman church and a couple of nice-looking pubs. But I had to press on to Norn’s Tump, so I’ll have to come back another time to find the chambers.

Visited the site 21.3.2009 from The Oven. Apart from a slight rise in the field there is no sign of the mound of this former barrow. However, if it’s been murdered the bones have been left for all to see. A large pile of limestone slabs and stones lie in the corner of the field at ST861986. From here I followed a bridleway north into Hazel Wood (which is lovely and worth visiting even without the barrow). The bridleway turns east, and where it meets the northern point of the field boundary that originally split the barrow, there is a further pile of limestone slabs, moss covered and warm in the spring sunshine.

A third collection of slabs (some over a metre across) lies on the north side of the footpath at ST 862987, and the path itself is covered in small flat pieces of limestone of the kind that forms the drystone walling of long barrows like Belas Knap. From here the path leads through the woods and down into Avening village, where Avening Burial Chambers are.

Visited 21.3.2009 on a glorious spring day. The barrow is situated in a field above Brandhouse Farm, currently filled with spring lambs and their mothers. A footpath crosses the field right next to the barrow, so access is easy. This is a low mound, overlooking a valley to the SSW. The barrow is higher on the south side (about 0.5m) than the north.

A bridleway runs east-west along the north of the field, and this took me to the site of Oldfield Wood long barrow.

Seen from Lechmore long barrow, the two are intervisible from each other. The round barrow sits at the top of a ridge, overlooking steep valley to the east. From a distance the top appears flattened, which may well indicate excavation scarring (I didn’t approach to check this out).

After passing the barrow, the footpath curves round to the SE. As it passes through a gateway (ST864973), there is a nicely squared upright slab of limestone next to the waymark – could easily be nothing of course.

Visited on a beautiful spring day (21.3.2009), walking up from Nailsworth via Tetbury Lane. Following the footpath to the north of the barrow, I noticed a collection of broken limestone slabs and stones tucked into the (otherwise stone-free) hedge at ST856982, which could easily have formed part of something megalithic at one time. The long barrow is situated in a grassy field, currently full of sheep. It is quite ploughed-down, with various stone blocks scattered on the top that are likely to have once formed part of the barrow itself. Lechmore round barrow is visible a little way away to the south along the ridge.

From here I went on to The Oven near Brandhouse Farm.

[visited 22/03/09] This is a pretty little promontory fort with well defined ramparts, certainly to the East, South and West. Not sure about the North however. I finally made it back here after making it within half a mile along the ridge a few years back and discovering nowhere to park at the top of the hill.

There are beautiful views in 3 directions, but you’ll need to trespass to see them. This is my least favourate type of hillfort, that where the only public access is straight across the middle. Of course the rest of the hill is covered in pasture so locking gates and thus stopping curious and lawabiding visitors from actually seeing much of this fort, is slightly annoying. Though the nature of the owner becomes clearer when you realise its nigh on impossible to get to the Open Access land which the North rampart is supposedly on. I gave up after fighting felled bushes, hedges being grown in the way and a scrambler track making it v. hard to proceed.

Access for me was straight up the hill using the footpath that starts at the West end of Bishop Sutton. I wouldn’t recommend it if you are very unfit though. I presume you could get a wheelchair from somewhere on top of the ridge. The bridleway is not passable by a car...

All in all, worth visiting if only to annoy the farmer, otherwise go to Maes Knoll.

A Spring visit this time and it’s currently the haunt of partridges. This barrow must have been really something once – it’s still reasonably high and I felt irritated that the other end of the barrow is totally flattened. It made me ponder how many other barrows must have existed but been wiped clean away. I couldn’t see any of the big stones I’d seen in winter as plants cover everything – but there are a great deal of little flat stones round about, and I did wonder whether they could be from some Cotswold Severn style walling?

I was pleased to spot the barrow’s twin* for the first time, through the hedge on the other side of the road. It seems directly opposite – it made me wonder how old the road is. The crops are only just sprouting so the barrow was clearly visible by its contrasting tufty grass. The multimap aerial photo shows it was ploughed, but it’s quite clear on the Google map now. The farmer obviously looks after it now, which is excellent – surely the poor thing’s been hammered enough over the millennia. It’s on top of a small rise, but in the middle of the field so you can’t really get to it. You can get an easier but not quite so clear view from the field entrance (which is blocked by some huge slabs of stone, which I did wonder about too).

*[gah – now looking at Magic it appears someone’s changed their mind and this is now down as some round barrows – though there’s no additional information. They are pretty much parallel to the long barrow though. I liked it when I thought there were two long barrows. Oh well. At least they make their own appearance on the SMR.]

Uffington Long mound

Made a point of looking for this feature, along with its neighbouring tumulus, when visiting Uffington Castle this afternoon.
Marked on the O.S. map between the hillfort and the white horse, this mound is easily missed unless you where dogged enough to hunt it out.
It would appear that the mound has not been reinstated since it’s excavation in 1857/1993 and it’s original shape and height would have been considerably larger. Hard to believe that 46 bodies have been unearthed here.

Uffington Tumulus

Had a good look for this tumulus when visiting Uffington Castle this afternoon.
Although it is clearly marked on the O.S. map between the hillfort and the white horse, finding it on the ground was a little disappointing.
Standing less than a meter high, the barrow is easily missed when walking north towards the white horse, and even when identified, didn’t seem to amount to much. All I can say is that its position on the crest of the hill was probably pronounced when first constructed.

Field Notes
Bury Wood Camp, Iron Age Hillfort, Colerne – Feb 2009

Scheduled Monument: SM28993 : SMR Number: ST87SW203
history.wiltshire.gov.uk/smr/getsmr.php?id=2244

Most of the hill forts in Wiltshire are set in green pastures with lots of sheep milling around.Bury Wood Camp has it’s wildlife too, during the summer, it turns into a muddy mosquitoe and snake infested swamp, with lots of Gurka soilders running around on exercise. Most hillforts are tranquil places of quiet reflection with nothing more than the winds whistle for the background sound effect.
This one came with noise of small arms fire, mortars and the light buzz of a spotter plane.

Having explored the site from different angles, I would suggest that you come in via the north east end.

Nowadays there is a bus stop on the A420 Bristol Road and even a pull in large enough for a coach. Best to park up by the church in North Wraxell and walk through the village, and down to Bristol Road, via the bridleway. Walk down the track and when you get to the stable, take the right hand bridleway down the steep incline to the bottom of Doncombe Brook. A ruined but working stone bridge takes you over the brook and into a wooded area brimming with wildlife.

The most direct route up to the fort is by crossing the brook, before you reach the bridge (take your wellies) and march up the steep hill ahead of you. This will take you up to the original north western entrance. If you follow the bridle way, then you can cross the brook further on by another stone bridge, which will take you along the eastern flank of the hillfort. The paths are well used by dog walkers and horses, so expect mud.

The woods have some spectacular Oak and Beach trees, along with plantations of Firs. The recent storms had taken off some big branches and parts of the track were blocked in places, although nothing you couldn’t get around.

Most of what we know about this promontory fort, and its enclosed 9 hectares, comes from the excavations made by Denis Grant-King in the 1960’s.
Although the general history of the fort, beginning with its initial building, can be dated to about 350 BC, various Neolithic and Mesolithic flint tools were removed, indicating much earlier use. Rotary and saddle querns were also recovered, along with a possible axe polishing stone.

The fort is sub-triangular with entrances at the NW & E. The main rampart across the south-west side is bivallatc 4m wide and 1m deep and an outer bank up to 2m high and 3m wide. This contains an entrance which was blocked at a later stage in the iron age. This earthwork may have been a cross-ridge dyke before it was incorporated into the hillfort.
An entrance in the middle of the south western side is modern.
A single bank and ditch surmount the sleep, wooded north and east sides. A funnel-shaped entrance in the north-east corner has been, proved by excavation and had been destroyed by fire.
Partial excavation of the site in 1959-60 has showed that an earlier structure existed at the north east entrance, indicated by drystone revetments within the northern rampart. In a second stage the entrance was remodelled and widened.
There was another entrance on the north-west side where four staggered post holes were uncovered as well as a cylindrical cavity 0.66m deep, interpreted as a gate post hole.
The small rectangular earthwork inside the fort marked on some maps as a barrow, is also of iron age date.
Some time in the second century BC the fort came to an end, although why is unknown.

A very interesting site to explore if you can spend a day marching up the steep sides. I would recommend you do this one in the spring or autumn though, as the mosquitoes and thick vegetation can make the whole place seem like a jungle.

This tumulus lies to the south of the village of Ligné and is sign posted from the village hall.
The village itself is famous for it’s cemetery, which contains various knights graves.

The tumulus mound is approximately 30m in diameter by 3.5m high, surrounded by a large circle of trees.
An entrance passage can be seen which connects to a ruined inner chamber.
Although the site is badly damaged, it is scheduled and will, in time, be excavated and restored, along with many of the other fine barrows in Charente.

Visited on a glorious warm Spring day (15.3.2009). Approached from the NE along the Cotswold Way from Cranham Corner. This is a great hillfort, although it has a golf-course right in the middle of it. The setting is terrific, as the ground slopes away in every direction from the hillfort, especially sharply to the north and west. It was very busy there today, with golfers, walkers, cyclists and family parties enjoying the weather. Views are terrific, right across the whole of West Gloucestershire, to the south Haresfield Camp, the Severn Estuary to the SW, May Hill and Hay Bluff, to the NE the Malverns, then over the Vale of Gloucester with the cathedral and Churchdown Hill, around to the north and NE the hillfort topped Bredon Hill, Nottingham Hill and Cleeve Hill. The fort is very accessible, with nearby parking.

The fort is approximately 8 acres in area, and is trully, and impressively, multi-vallate. On the north side the rampart is low as the natural scarp provides its own defence. On the south is a series of three banks enclosing deep ditches, the highest and most imposing bank being the top one – you really wouldn’t want to be the attacker here!

From here it’s a pleasant stroll along the Cotswold Way (easy walking) down into the lovely village of Painswick, where there are several nice pubs and a few shops.

The photos of the banks and ditches are dedicated to Rhiannon (yes, it’s another ditch).

Lugnacco’s menhir is another one of the 3 (Chivasso, Mazzè, Lugnacco) similar menhir in this area. This is the smaller one (3.85 m tall) and it’s placed outside the small cemetery of the village, I don’t know if this is the original position.
There are some holes on it. In my opinion this engravings are newer than the menhir, but I don’t know.

Sometimes I look at some of the photos people post of hill forts on this website and think, uncharitably, yeah yeah another photo of a ditch. But, walking round Battlesbury, I realised why people feel compelled to do this. If you’re lucky, the banks and ditches at hill forts are impressive. They can be pretty monumental. They’re utterly sculptural. The light catches their shape. I felt an overwhelming urge to capture that at Battlesbury – but not being a photographer, I soon ended up with a series of weedy snaps. It was frustrating. I’m sure many people make a much better job of it, but I can’t. And it’s not just the forms – it’s how to capture the space outwards, and the strange combination of silence and noise – the wind howls so hard your ears hurt, but yet it’s tranquil and still up here.

I was thinking of the name ‘Battlesbury’ and how probably inappropriate it is. Well it seems appropriate as you walk round and see the firing range and the shells of tanks – directly next to the fort is the off-limits military part of Salisbury Plain. But truly, how much battle did this fort see in its day? It reminded me of something fitzcoraldo had said about ceramics – that the revolution in everyday life that this new technology must have brought seems barely discussed. Ok sherds are used for dating sites, but who needs pottery when you’ve got sharp pointy weapons to talk about. Maybe wars and skirmishes did go on, but there have been plenty in historic times too, yet most of the time people are getting on with ordinary life.

It struck me walking round that ‘those banks and ditches didn’t dig themselves’ – they were a great deal of work to undertake. But it would have had its symbolic value, to bind the local people together, as well as to act as a clear visual symbol of their determination and strength, besides being a good physical defence. It’s actually in a super spot here, as there are steep hills around on all sides. You’d be bloody knackered before you got anywhere near poking someone with a spear.

Exhausted after dashing up here in my usual half-panic I sat down with the view directly out to Cley Hill. This would definitely have been my favourite spot if I’d been living here in the Iron Age. I can tell you, Iron Age people definitely wore hoods, or if not, ear muffs. You wouldn’t last ten minutes up here without them at this time of year, it’d be far too painful. I wondered about the other people whose favourite spot this had been too, looking out at Cley Hill all those years ago. I wondered if they knew the people who lived out there, maybe there were friends and relations and people they fancied. It’s funny how these forts are so empty today and it’s just you and the sheep, yet at the same time my thoughts are always centred on the experience of the people that lived here. I know it’s just imagination to consider what went on, but you always know that the view and the weather were there the same.

[on a more useful, gradient related note: I think you can drive pretty much up to the level of the fort. I left the car opposite the footpath at ST 896462 but the path is steep and goes up some steps before levelling out – there’s a kissing gate to get in. I think really you could park higher up the road (don’t be put off by the enormous tank) and use the track at ST 898464, getting a pretty level walk to the fort (presumably there’s then a gate). Once at the fort there’s some element of clamber to get on the banks and walk round.]

I visted little Doward Camp today.
I walked along the rampart which is on the left (with the big hacked up tree on the end of it) when you enter the fort (from Crockers Ash direction) which led to a path that follows the outside of the rampart, and found another rampart and ditch in the woods.
I then walked down the path which goes down the slope where there are no defences. I saw something that I at first thought might be a rampart but was actually rock (which looks like limestone). I walked on the path that goes around the hill; the rock is very high(like a small cliff), and the hill is extremely steep so they act like a natural set of defences.

There are a number of other historic features near the fort, including an iron age causeway, have a look on the Herefordshire Sites and Monuments Record:
smr.herefordshire.gov.uk/hsmr/db.php

Little Doward Camp is a scheduled ancient monument, in a Site of Special Scientific Interest and near Regionally Important Geological Sites.

What a really ace place for a burial chamber !
In the Pembrokeshire coast national park right amongst almost vertical cliffs above the crashing waves
in a small inlet with a pristene beach near a castle, amazing, only the fact that it took four hours of solid driving to get here stopped me coming before now.
The path up to the kings quoit starts on the beach itself, as the tomb can be seen easily just follow the path, which in places is quite thin with a long fall into the cold water. I didnt know it was as big as it is,
the capstone is huge the stones it rests on are large, and there is that all important big get inable chamber. The setting is almost too ideal and I wonder whether the sea was this close all those years ago or was this bay and the others seen from the chamber all dry land.
Something was amiss though, there was a shallow excavation at the rear of the chamber 6inches deep or so and on the capstone there was a spread of what looked like finely crushed shell. nothing much I know but it seems there is still some madness left in megalithia.

Harold stone is next to a hedge two fields from the road, about seven feet tall and maybe four feet wide
but less than a foot thick, and by the looks of the ground possibly set in a cairn, unless its just field clearance.
The cows mooood loudly as we approached but lost interest as we went behind the hedge, this is probably the site of my phone loss, damn pixies aaaagh !

A big lump of a stone is this, set on the top of a slight hill, nearly seven feet tall.
A large black rub site marrs one side with black fur still on it .
This isn’t as far as I know a quoit, to be fair the map says its a standing stone,
perhaps the name “devils quoit” can be applied to any big stone or was the stone
once lying down and got it’s name that way, either way its a bit of a confuser.

Wow just look at that, what a superb dolmen I had no idea it was so huge. Even the super nearness of the house can be excused, if your into dolmems this one has to be near the top of your list along with Carreg Sampson and Ystumcegid.
The close proximity of a stone built wall counts for the cairn material I presume. I still cant beleive it though, even Phillippa said wow when we first clapped eyes on it , its just so big, Llech y tripped and coaten Arthur both up the coast are pale second cousins to this massive member of the dolmen race.. I know the house is a little off putting but just imagine sitting under the capstone on a hot summers day and watching the horses in the paddock not ten feet from the chamber, its a goodun.