Hanging Bank, Ecton Hill

Nearest town:
Leek (12km WSW)
OS reference:
SK096577
OS sheet:
119
Latitude:
53° 6' 57.66 N
Longitude:
1° 51' 23.59 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Hanging Bank, Ecton Hill (Round Barrow(s)) by stubob

08/14.
Looking northish to Chrome Hill and neighbours in the Flagg Bowl.

stubob
stubob Aug 5, 2014

Articles

Hanging Bank, Ecton Hill

stubob
stubob Aug 5, 2014

Top of Ecton Hill on a clear day in the Peak, for views, takes some beating. Swallow Moss, Axe Edge, the Hills of Parkhouse and Chrome, High Wheeldon fill the northern horizon. While the Wolfscote, Glutton, Narrowdale and Wetton hills dominate toward the southern one.
There Five barrows on Ecton Hill; this one, of three, on Hanging Bank being the pick of them. Excavations have left their mark but it survives as a pretty decent barrow in a Peak sorta way.

Folklore

Hanging Bank, Ecton Hill
Round Barrow(s)
BrownEdger
BrownEdger Sep 2, 2014

A Giant’s Grave?

Robert Plot mentions that men’s bones “of an extraordinary size” were found when a Low on Ecton Hill was opened. Apparently these bones were “preserved for some time by one Mr. Hamilton vicar of Alstonefield”. Source: The Natural History of Stafford-shire”, Plot, R. 1686. p.330 paragraph 109.

This is probably the low mentioned by Plot “on Ecton” in the list of lows on p.404 paragraph 21.

When Carrington opened Hanging Bank barrow on 18th May 1848 he noted that the site had been previously disturbed.

Bateman believed that this barrow must be the one Plot refers to as it is the only one of the five on Ecton that showed evidence of having previously been dug into.

There are plenty of examples from around the world of “Giant’s bones” being discovered which are in fact the bones of large animals that have been misidentified – is that the case here? Maybe / maybe not – there are certainly examples of animals being interred in barrows in Staffordshire but these tend to be either smaller animals such as a dog, a pig or a polecat or they are part of an animal such as an Ox’s head or antler tines. So could this just be the burial of a strapping, big warrior? Would that warrant the description “...bones...of an extraordinary size”?

It is a pity we do not know what Mr. Hamilton did with the bones he ‘preserved’.

Sites within 20km of Hanging Bank, Ecton Hill

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