One of a number of locations across the Staffordshire Moorlands reputed by local lore to have been the site of a great battle in ancient times (Longnor and Illam are two others that spring to mind). In one version of the legend the battle was between Romans and a local tribe, in another between the (Christian) Mercian Saxons and the (Pagan) Danes.
Therefore it has been said that the burial mound on Callow Hill known as Cat Low is the final resting place of a great warrior/leader/King or even Centurian. who fell in combat at that battle. Perhaps that helps to explain why it has been excavated so often.
Oft excavated Bowl Barrow sited on a rocky spur of Callow Hill overlooking the Staffordshire Moorlands village of Dilhorne.
Cat Low was excavated in July 1955 by A.R. Mountford and a rock-cut grave found which was empty. The site had been excavated at an earlier date, thought to be circa 1920. However, a local told Mountford that the earlier excavations had taken place some 50 or 60 years previously.
The site was excavated again by the Potteries Museum Archaeological Society in the 1960s.
The Barrow has an average diameter of 35ft and rises to a height of 2ft. A ditch is apparent on the North side of the site 1m wide and 0.1m deep. There is a crater like depression in the centre of the summit of the mound that is probably evidence of one of the early excavations.
Shown on the O.S. map by a Tumulus label and earthwork symbol just to the South of the woods known as St. Thomas' Trees.
Scheduled Ancient Monument No.=1008721. Scheduled as bowl barrow at St. Thomas's Trees. R.S.M. = 22431. NMR=SJ94 SE9.
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Posted by BrownEdger
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