The date of this site is debatable – it is quite possible, due to it’s proximity to the other barrow at Winckley Lowes, that this is a Bronze Age site. However some have claimed the mound to have been built after the battle of Billington in 789ce.
Simeon of Durham gives an account of that battle:
“A confederacy was made of the murderers of King Aethelred; Wada, chief in that conspiracy, with his force went against Eardwulf, in a place called by the English Billangahoh (Billington), near Walalege (Whalley), and on either side many were slain; Wada, the chief, with his men, was put to flight, and King Eardwulf regally achieved victory over his enemies.”
The Anglo-Saxon chronicles of that year state:
“In this year in Spring, on 2nd April, there was a great battle at Whalley in Northumbria, and there was slain Alric, son of Heardberht, and many others with him.”