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Image of Willerby Wold (Long Barrow) by Chris Collyer

“There is very little to see on this site now” – Fieldnotes I wrote in 2003. I’ve never been able to get much of a photo of the remains of the barrow, this is the best I can get. The darker patch of grass marks the western end of the earth mound.

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Willerby Wold

There is very little to see on this site now, but Dyer includes it in Discovering Prehistoric England, Ann Woodward covers it in her book, and Julian flags it as standing next to a presumed Neolithic trackway in his Gypsey Race map, so I’ll include it as well although it is probably for anoraks only.
If you stand at the bend in the road with the field boundary in front of you the long barrow is hard to make out in the field to the right and there are the low remains of a bowl barrow between it and the road which confuses things. To the left of the boundary there are a couple of low round barrows recorded by Canon Greenwell but unexcavated.

The long barrow is around 50 metres long and 13 metres wide oriented east-west and badly ploughed down. The north and south flanking ditches are completely filled. The barrow has been excavated twice – by Greenwell in 1865 and Manby in 1958 and between them they found 3 burials, a collection of bones and remains of cremations, sherds from pots and flint fragments. The mortuary structure was trapezoidal with a concave wooden palisade at the east end, the whole thing being covered with an earth and chalk mound before being fired – creating a crematoria with temperatures estimated to have reached nearly 1200 centigrade. Radiocarbon tests from the site suggest a date of around 3000BC.

Info-
English Heritage
Ann Woodward – British Barrows
Dyer – Discovering Prehistoric England

Miscellaneous

Willerby Wold
Long Barrow

Details of Long Barrow on Pastscape

Neolithic crematorium long barrow, trapezoidal mound incorporating a morturary enclosure, excavated c 1850 and 1960, slightly ploughed down, but still well-defined. Finds included Neolithic pottery, flint and stone implements.

TA 0296 7608. TUMULI [NR]. (1)
Willerby Wold Long Barrow was excavated by Greenwell in the mid-19th century, and shown to be one of the crematorium long barrows peculiar to Yorkshire.
From 1958-60 a more extensive excavation was undertaken to clear the whole eastern end of the mound. The barrow was a trapezoidal mound 122ft long, 35ft broad at the east end and flanked by ditches on the north and south sides. It had been erected over the site of a trapezoidal mortuary enclosure which had had a post-set facade at the eastern end incorporating a ritual-pit at the centre and another set behind. Bones of several bodies had been placed in the crematorium deposit and had been cremated by the firing of the deposit after the erection of the mound. (See plans).
Finds included Neolithic pottery (carinated bowls of Piggott’s Grimston Ware) and flint and stone implements. The sherds found by Greenwell Collection in the British Museum. (2)
The adjacent round barrow is referred to by Greenwell and included with several others, “...most of which I have opened.” (3)
Slightly ploughed down, but still well-defined. Published survey (25”) correct. (4)
TA 0295 7607. Long barrow, 750m NW of High Forden Farm. Scheduled RSM number 23801. (5)

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SOURCE TEXT
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( 1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date) OS 6” map, 1912
( 2) General reference PPS, vol 29, 1963, p 173-205, Excavn Re . plans, photos figs (T G Manby)
( 3) General reference British Barrows, 1878, p 487 (W Greenwell)
( 4) General reference Field Investigator, RWE, 15-MAY-1968
( 5) General reference English Heritage, Scheduling Amendment, 25-MAR-1994

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