Nempnett Thrubwell Long Barrow View all content for Nempnett Thrubwell

Details of Long Barrow on Pastscape [ST 52056179] Fairy Toot [TI] Long Barrow [GT]. (1) Fairy Toot comprises the remains of a long barrow with transepted gallery. In 1788 it was 150 feet N-S and 75 feet E-W and 40 feet high. It was being destroyed for road metalling and T. Bere describes a port-hole stone which led to a gallery with several chambers containing skeletal remains. Only a single human cranium is now in Bristol City Museum. The bulk of the barrow was made of small white stones covered with 5-6 inches of soil. [See AO/62/302/6 for an 18th C. view of the barrow.] The barrow is now divided into two mounds, ten feet in diameter and four feet high; a cowshed occupies part of the site. (2-4) The most obvious remains of this long barrow is a small tree covered mound 2.5m high. This is composed of small limestone slabs and it would seem that the old lime kiln immediately to the south used stone from the barrow. To the north of the mound a crescentic scarp, maximum height 0.9m, almost certainly represents the northern extremity of the barrow. Surveyed at 1:2500 (See AO/65/237/2 for an 18th/19th century illustration of the gallery) (a). (5) References to a lost cave at Burrington, containing not less the 100 skeletons, possibly due to confusion in early sources with Fairy Toot long barrow, although there is no suggestion that as many as 100 skeletons were found here (6-7) The aerial photographs of this area were examined as part of the Mendip Hills AONB project of the National Mapping Programme. No evidence for this site was seen on the available aerial photographs (8).

Posted by Chance 12th April 2015ce

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