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Milford Round Barrow

This is what appears to be a round barrow, perched on the top of a hill at the northern edge of Cannock Chase. Certainly a shallow ditch surrounds a circular mound of earth, and though worn, I have no reason to doubt that it is what it appears to be! The remants of a cement post stands in the middle, though I can’t imagine what it was there for. I can find no reference to the site in any resources I have on Staffordshire, though two ‘Saxon burial mounds’ (King’s Low and Queen’s Low) are situated on the flatter land to the north-west. I would be interested for some of you more experienced Antiquarians to have a first hand look at this site and say what you think.

Getting there;
Off the A513, turn into the second track leading to Sister Dora’s Nursing Home. Beyond this, turning right, there is parking space for about 10 cars (it will be busy at weekends, so you could park on the Pay car park on the Common and walk through the trees to this point). With the Nursing Home behind you, you will see a small pond between two paths and to the left of this, a track leading directly up the hill. The burial mound is at the top of this hill.
Put the OS co-ordinates into Rhiannon’s Get A Map link:
ordnancesurvey.co.uk/leisure/site.cfm?display=getamap.co.uk/getamap_index.htm
You are heading for the right of the 138 contour, just below Milford Common.

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Miscellaneous

Milford Round Barrow
Round Barrow(s)

There seems to be some difference of opinion on this site.

Pastscape sums it up with the description “conical mound with an outer ditch and bank, previously alleged to be a barrow, but probably a mound constructed to be topped by a mid 18th century obelisk – since removed. Scheduled as a Saucer Barrow.”

Recorded as a Ring Barrow in the 1920’s. In 1958 the OS’s V.J. Burton interpreted the site as a possible Saucer Barrow. Notes that the summit has been dug into or levelled and reports that in 1954 a large erratic block was concreted on top of the mound, but that just four years later it had fallen off into the valley below!

However, in 1974 D.J. Clarke of the OS cited the excellent state of preservation, the unusual external bank and the level top as reasons to make it unlikely to be a barrow.

It may have been excavated by Molyneux in the late 1800’s and the North Staffs Field Club proposed excavating the site but seem not to have done so.

Staffs. H.E.R. entry (PRN 00863) records it as The scheduled fragmentary remains of a probable Bronze Age Saucer Barrow. Pape notes it may have been robbed as the centre appears to have been dug into. Listed in Gunstone’s gazetteer of barrows as Baswich 2.

Finally, National Heritage List for England has the scheduling info. Grid Ref:- SJ 97656 20788. Scheduled Monument No.= 1009312. Scheduled as Saucer Barrow on Spring Hill. RSM=22423. First scheduled 21st January 1993.

Described as a Saucer Barrow consisting of an oval earthen mound upto 0.5m high, max dimensions 20.5m x 17m. bank and ditch surrounding it on all sides except the South-East. Ditch – 1.7m wide and upto 0.3m deep. Bank – 4.7m wide and 0.3m high. Monument not known to have been excavated. The concrete post is scheduled too!

Appears on OS Map as an earthwork symbol and Mound label in normal script.

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