Barrow Hill, Higham Marshes

Nearest town:
Gravesend (6km WSW)
OS reference:
TQ71037466
OS sheets:
177, 178
Latitude:
51° 26' 40.39 N
Longitude:
0° 27' 40.96 E
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Barrow Hill, Higham Marshes (Sacred Hill) by GLADMAN

None shall pass! Oh, ‘ang on. It’s you...

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN May 30, 2023
Image of Barrow Hill, Higham Marshes (Sacred Hill) by GLADMAN

From the approx north-east, as I recall?

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN May 30, 2023
Image of Barrow Hill, Higham Marshes (Sacred Hill) by GLADMAN

Approaching from the south across Higham Marshes it all becomes clear: why would you erect a massive round barrow of your own... when you could place your cist upon a ruddy great natural ‘barrow’?

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN May 30, 2023

Articles

Boy did they try... but they couldn’t destroy the ‘sense of place’ of this one....

GLADMAN
GLADMAN Aug 5, 2023

Miscellaneous

Barrow Hill, Higham Marshes
Sacred Hill
GLADMAN
GLADMAN May 30, 2023

Well, I was a bit at a loss as to what ‘designation’ to apply to this one – isn’t it curious how we humans always have the need to define things? – seeing as that shameful qualifier ‘Destroyed’ seems most inappropriate here.

To attempt to clarify/explain: it would seem – or at least appear highly likely to me – that once upon a time, the natural feature that is Barrow Hill was crowned by an earthen barrow covering a cist. Kent’s HER informs us that: “As the result of denudation of a burial mound of marsh turf, the outline of a  collapsed oblong cist of Kentish ragstone was visible on Higham Marshes. It was excavated in 1880 by Mr E.L.Arnold and found to contain a crouched skeleton (very crushed) accompanied by 79 beads which lay as if they had originally been around the neck. the beads were Porosphaera globularis (a fossil sponge common in the Upper Chalk and taking a globular form), ranging from 7 to 26 mm. in diameter and naturally perforated. The mound stood on a gravelly hillock which probably stood out of the water when all the surrounding district was swamp”.

Now, although there appears to be no conclusive proof that Barrow Hill was the location of said cist, the fact that: 1) Barrow Hill is the only such feature (as described) in the locality; 2) The locals saw fit to name the place ‘Barrow Hill’... suggests it is a pretty good bet.

So, should one focus upon the destroyed round barrow that once was... or the natural feature that simply HAD to be the site for it back then? Sacred Hill seems fair enough, don’t you think?

The HER record is here:
heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=416875&resourceID=19191

Sites within 20km of Barrow Hill, Higham Marshes

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