Sounds like a Radiohead album! Richmond Park is a pretty unique place for London (although Richmond-ites would demand that they are in Surrey not London). It is huge and pretty wild, and offers distinct possibilities for saddo’s like me who want to find some ancient history on our doorsteps. I would love to live on Dartmoor, in Aberdeenshire, on Orkney, et al, with history oozing out of every pore, but currently I don’t so I’ll have to do with anything vaguely mound like in Richmond Park.
Of all the others around, this does fit the bill more. The general Richmond Park info board has a symbol for ‘ancient heritage’ and has the symbol where Longbarrow A is. And I reckon that if you look very, very closely at the OS Explorer map 161 you can see a small ‘tumulus’ symbol (but without the word tumulus). This looks pretty much like a longbarrow and is pretty easy to find. It’s really quite nice to see something so old, yet so close to millions of passing cars per year. Fortunately, although it is on two small paths, it is a decent stones throw from the main path where most people run and cycle - if it was on this main path just one Sunday on march would be enough to trample it into dust - is this where half of London goes on a Sunday? How far would a shiny mountain bike fit up a man’s arse?
visted 02/07/02
After a fairly lengthy quest starting with a very drunken conversation in a club, I finally found a longbarrow in Richmond Park. Ok so it might not actually be one, but until I'm convinced, it'll do for me.
To find it, start at Pembroke Lodge Garden and head south. Take the path slowly diverging from the road to the west and you'll walk straight across the barrow. It is about 40m long, 20m wide and 2-3m high.
It has been reduced to having two peaks (one at either end) and a dip in the middle, which may well have been caused by gravel digging. At least one other mound in the park has disapeared due to this. In addition you should be able to easily identify the barrow due to the large oak on the western end.
The site itself is peaceful with the occasional walker strolling past and worth a visit despite the delapidated state.
The most probable of 3 possible longbarrows in the park, in addition to Henry VIII Mound.
It is listed in the GLS&MR as a possible longbarrow and the Richmond Park archeological survey (1992) is confident about its authenticity. However other experts have dismissed the possibility of there being any longbarrows in Richmond Park (or any other London park it seems).
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