Marden Henge (and Hatfield Barrow)

Image of Marden Henge (and Hatfield Barrow) by ginger tt

Eastern edge of henge

Image credit: Gingertrailertrash

ginger tt Oct 6, 2011

Eastern Bank

Image credit: Gingertrailertrash

ginger tt Oct 6, 2011

Image of Marden Henge (and Hatfield Barrow) by notjamesbond

notjamesbond Apr 19, 2004

notjamesbond Apr 19, 2004

Image of Marden Henge (and Hatfield Barrow) by Earthstepper

English Heritage information notice

Earthstepper Aug 31, 2003

Bank and ditch of Marden Henge

Earthstepper Aug 31, 2003

Articles

4000 yr old skeleton of a child found

tjj Jul 24, 2015

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-33643447

Jim Leary's team at Marden Henge have found a Bronze Age burial of a child. Gender not known yet but child wearing amber beads.

Another Talk by Dr. Jim Leary

Chance May 18, 2011

Marden Henge: Another Talk by Dr. Jim Leary

Friday 10 June 2011 20:00

Coronation Hall – Alton Barnes

A lecture by Jim Leary, English Heritage.

Learn about the henges at Marden, the oldest known house in the Pewsey Vale, and what happened to the Hatfield Barrow

Booking: No booking necessary, payable on the door

Cost: £4.00; Senior Citizens and Students £3.00; payable on the door

A Henge Revealed: Recent work at Marden Henge

goffik Apr 12, 2011

salisburymuseum.org.uk/what-s-on/lectures/165-a-henge-revealed-recent-work-at-marden-henge.html

12 Apr 2011 19:30

Lecture Hall – Salisbury & South Wiltshire Museum

A lecture by Jim Leary, English Heritage. The summer of 2010 saw excavations at one of the largest Neolithic Henge monuments in Britain: Marden. It is located in the heart of the Vale of Pewsey between Stonehenge and Avebury and although it does not have any surviving stone settings, its sheer size is astounding.

The excavation was the culmination of a two-year multi-disciplinary project and provided evidence for a now demolished mound – said to be the second largest in Wiltshire after Silbury Hill. More remarkable, however, was the discovery of an extraordinarily well-preserved Neolithic building – undoubtedly one of the best preserved in Britain outside Orkney. This lecture will discuss the findings from the project, and explore some reasons of why it was constructed and what it could have been used for.

A lecture in the Salisbury Museum Archaeology Lectures (SMAL) series. SMAL lectures are held on the second Tuesday of each month from September to April.

Booking: No booking necessary, payable on the door

Cost: Museum members £2.00; non-Members £3.50; payable on the door

Marden Henge excavation uncovers 4,500yo "Ceremonial Building"

mascot Mar 14, 2011

pasthorizons.com/index.php/archives/03/2011/marden-henge-excavations-opens-window-on-neolithic-ritual

Article on the dig here at

The heat was on at Marden Henge

moss Feb 14, 2011

thisiswiltshire.co.uk/news/headlines/8845131.The_heat_was_on_at_Marden_Henge/?ref=rss

A building whose foundations were unearthed during an excavation at Marden Henge near Devizes last summer could have been a Neolithic sauna.

Archaeologist Jim Leary told his audience at Devizes town hall on Saturday that the chalk foundations contained a sunken hearth that would have given out intense heat.

"It brings to mind the sweat lodges found in North America," he said. "It could have been used as part of a purification ceremony."

Also found was a midden or rubbish heap with dozens of pig bones, some still attached, likely to be the remains of a huge feast that took place 5,000 years ago.

Mr Leary was supposed to give his talk at the museum, but such was the interest in his subject that it was transferred to the town hall. All 150 tickets were sold and people queued for returns.

Mr Leary said Marden Henge is the biggest henge in England but because it did not have a stone circle associated with it, tended to be overlooked. Before Professor Geoffrey Wainwright examined its northern sector in 1969, it had not been investigated since the early 19th century.

A huge mound, like a smaller version of Silbury Hill, named Hatfield Barrow, once existed there, but it collapsed after a shaft was dug through its centre and was levelled shortly afterwards.

The English Heritage team investigated that area as well as two sites further south, and it was at the area known as the Southern Circle that they made their most exciting discoveries.

It was in the bank of this henge within a henge that they found the chalk floor. Mr Leary described the dig as a work in progress. He said: "We are at a very early stage and there is a lot more to be found. But our fate is in the hands of the government cuts.

"Clearly there is more work to be done, at least another season, but we need funding to do any further investigation."

wiltshireheritage.org.uk/events/index.php?Action=2&thID=603&prev=1

Wiltshire Heritage Museum – Lecture by Jim Leary on Marden Henge

tjj Jan 27, 2011

6 Comments

LECTURE: The Marvellous Marden Henge: Recent Work

2:30 pm, Saturday, 05 February, 2011

LECTURE: The Marvellous Marden Henge: Recent Work

A lecture by Jim Leary about the excavations at Marden in 2010 and the discovery there of an extraordinarily well-preserved Neolithic building.

The summer of 2010 saw excavations at one of the largest Neolithic henge monuments in Britain: Marden. Located in the heart of the Vale of Pewsey between Stonehenge and Avebury it does not have any surviving stone settings, but its sheer size is astounding.

This lecture will discuss the findings from the project, and explore some reasons of why it was constructed and what it could have been used for.

Jim Leary, FSA, an English Heritage archaeologist, was much involved with the excavations at Marden Henge and also those at Silbury Hill. He is co-author of a new book 'The Story of Silbury Hill'.

Pictures (c) Jim Leary, English Heritage.

Saturday afternoon lectures start at 2.30pm and last approx. one hour.

This lecture is now taking place at Devizes Town Hall, just a short walk from the Museum.

Booking: Essential

Contact the Bookings Secretary:

* Tel: 01380 727369 (10am to 5pm Monday to Saturday)

Cost: £3.00 members, £5.00 non-members

6 Comments

guardian.co.uk/science/2010/jul/28/marden-henge-builders-yard-stonehenge

Was Marden Henge the builder’s yard for Stonehenge?

moss Jul 28, 2010

5 Comments

Maeve Kennedy in the Guardian....

Stone tools, flakes and the remains of a final feast at the site in Wiltshire suggest the huge sarsens that now stand at Stonehenge were brought to Marden Henge........

The last revellers seem to have cleared up scrupulously after the final party at Marden Henge some 4,500 years ago.

They scoured the rectangular building and the smart white chalk platform on top of the earth bank, with its spectacular view towards the river Avon in one direction, and the hills from which the giant sarsen stones were brought to Stonehenge in the other.

All traces of the feast – the pig bones, the ashes and the burnt stones from the barbecue that cooked them, the broken pots and bowls – were swept neatly into a dump to one side. A few precious offerings, including an exquisitely worked flint arrowhead, were carefully laid on the clean chalk. Then they covered the whole surface with a thin layer of clay, stamped it flat, and left. Forever.

In the past fortnight, English Heritage archaeologists have peeled back the thin layer of turf covering the site, which has somehow escaped being ploughed for more than 4,000 years. They were astounded to find the undisturbed original surface just as the prehistoric Britons left it.

"We're gobsmacked really," said site director Jim Leary.

Giles Woodhouse, a volunteer digger who must return next week to his day job as a lieutenant colonel in the army bound for Germany and then Afghanistan, has been crouched over the rubbish dump day after day, his black labrador Padma sighing at his side. He has been teasing the soil away from bone, stone and pottery so perfectly preserved it could have been buried last year.

"It gives one a bit of a shiver down the backbone to realise the last man to touch these died 4,500 years ago," he said. His finds, still emerging from the soil, will rewrite the history of the site.

Marden in Wiltshire has been puzzling archaeologists for centuries. It is set almost exactly half way between two of the most famous and tourist-choked sites in Britain, Stonehenge and Avebury, but it is far larger than either. The ragged oval of outer earth banks at Marden, completed by a bend of the Avon, enclose more than 14 hectares, compared with 11.5 hectares at Avebury, where the banks surround an entire modern village.

Famously – to its comparatively few devotees and visitors, that is – it is the biggest henge in Britain that isn't there, surrounding one of the biggest artificial hills in Britain, which isn't there either.

This is the first excavation since Geoffrey Wainwright, former chief archaeologist at English Heritage, explored one small corner of the site in 1969. What stunned the archaeologists when they started work three weeks ago was just how much is left.

Once your eye is in you can see it: the sweep of the ditches, the belt of trees hiding some of the earth bank, which still rise to three metres in some places, the stain in the grass marking the lost barrow and its massive surrounding moat, and the wholly unexpected discovery – the second, smaller henge so close to the modern houses that the roots of two trees at the foot of a back garden are actually growing into its bank.

The neolithic buildings were not where others have looked for them, on the level in the centre of the henges, but on top of the bank.

"We've all been looking in the wrong place," Leary said, "there will have to be a major rethink about other henges. And it's actually almost terrifying how close to the surface the finds were – there's also going to have to be a major review of our management plans for other sites."

The only known image of Hatfield Barrow – an early 18th century map in the archives of the landowner, Corpus Christi College in Oxford – shows the artificial hill as a jaunty little sandcastle sporting a cockade of trees. It once rose to a height of almost 15 metres, half the height of Silbury near Avebury.

The two antiquarians who burrowed like rabbits through scores of Wiltshire earthworks in the early 19th century, Sir Richard Colt Hoare and William Cunnington, punched a massive shaft through Hatfield Barrow in 1807. They scrappily recording finds that torment the modern archaeologists, including animal bones, burned wood, and "two small parcels of burned human bones".

They left the shaft open, possibly intending to return in another season, and the mound collapsed. This is a phenomenon Leary knows well, having led the rescue excavation before the engineering works to stabilise Silbury, which was also left riddled with slowly collapsing holes by Georgian and later diggers.

The farmer at Marden filled in the moat, which an 18th century naturalist recorded as fed by a natural spring and never dry even in the hottest summer, and sold the collapsed hillock as top soil. Leary's massive trench has uncovered barely a trace of hill or moat.

If the hill disappointed, the excavations at one of the original entrances and at the small henge certainly do not. They are revealing what appears to be a broad gravelled ceremonial road leading towards the river. Discovering undisturbed neolithic surfaces and building platforms on this scale counts as a discovery of international importance.

There is no evidence of permanent occupation of the dwellings or the site as a whole. As in the work led by Professor Mike Parker Pearson at Durrington Walls, 20 miles away (he couldn't resist coming over to help dig, and some of his former students had the pleasure of giving him orders) the implication is of people gathering for seasonal rituals and feasting, and maybe a work camp.

"A completely artificial division has been made in the past between domestic and religious, recreation and ritual," Leary said. "We're going to have to rethink all that. It's not one thing or the other, it's everything mixed in together."

If it wasn't a village, or a temple, or a farm, or a cemetery, what was Marden for? Leary suspects the answer may be emerging in stone working tools, and flakes of sarsen, turning up all over the site. If you were going to drag sarsens the size of double decker buses from their original site to Stonehenge, he said, the obvious route is straight through a natural gap in the hilly landscape, which would take them through Marden.

The evidence that Marden was a sort of builder's yard for the most famous prehistoric monument in the world may have been in the mud under the boots of Leary's puzzled predecessors.

So why did they leave? Maybe with Stonehenge complete, the sarsens shaped into the giant trilithons which still awe the hordes of modern visitors, their job was done. They tidied up nicely, turned out the lights, and left.

5 Comments

Take a guided tour of Marden Henge

goffik Jul 28, 2010

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10742462

Archaeologists are excavating at Marden Henge, a site that could dwarf Stonehenge in size and is potentially more significant.

It is one of Britain's least understood ancient sites, dating back around 4,500 years.

Dave Fellows, an archaeologist working on the site, gave BBC correspondent Robert Hall a guided tour.

(Video)

thisiswiltshire.co.uk/news/headlines/8225512.Mystery_near_Marden_of_henge/?ref=rss

Mystery near Marden of henge

moss Jun 19, 2010

10 Comments

A site at Marden, near Devizes, rivalled Stonehenge and Avebury in its day, says English Heritage.

The group is about to undertake a six-week dig at the site close to the village, starting on June 28.

Unlike Stonehenge and Avebury, Marden Henge no longer has any surviving standing stones, but its sheer size is astounding.

Comprising a substantial and well-preserved bank with an internal ditch enclosing an area of some 10.5 hectares – equivalent to ten football pitches – it is one of the largest Neolithic henges in Britain.

Archaeologists are particularly intrigued by evidence of a huge mound at the centre of the henge similar to a smaller version of Silbury Hill.

The mound collapsed in 1806 and was levelled by 1817. English Heritage hopes to find out more about this feature by obtaining dating material from any surviving features within its centre.

Jim Leary, the English Heritage archaeologist who was involved in the recent restoration of Silbury Hill, said: "Marden Henge deserves to be understood more, partly because of its size, but also due to its proximity to the more famous stone circles at Avebury and Stonehenge.

"How Marden relates to them is another layer of interest which we want to study.

"We are potentially looking at a much more intricate system of Neolithic ritual sites in this part of the world than we previously thought."

The Henge is on the road out of the village towards Beechingstoke, at Hatfield Farm, and is a popular picnic area.

Parish council chairman Peter Bell was pleased with the news. He said: "I hadn't heard English Heritage were planning this, but I am delighted. It is an important local archaeological site and we don't know nearly enough about it."

The Henge is on the road out of the village towards Beechingstoke, at Hatfield Farm, and is on private land.

Sue Shepherd-Cross, who lives at Hatfield Farm, was delighted at the news. She said: "It is a remarkable place and it would be fascinating to find out more about it."

The website Megalithic.co.uk describes Marden Henge, or Hatfield Earthworks, as the largest henge in Britain. It adds: "There is not much to see but bank and ditch. Plenty of atmosphere, though."

* A midsummer's eve picnic party is taking place at Marden Henge on Saturday June 26 at 8.15pm in aid of the Fairyland Trust which is a children's conservation society

10 Comments

Marden Henge (and Hatfield Barrow)

Henge

CARL Oct 16, 2014

Visited 13.10.14

I first visited this site a few years ago but on that occasion I was in a rush and I (somehow) missed the information board. I had been meaning to revisit ever since.

This time I had Karen with me and it didn’t take her long to spot the info board. It is the other side of a wooden stile giving access from the road to the small field owned by English Heritage.

The heavy rain didn't help when trying to read the information.

As has previously been said there is very little left of the henge to see – a low, arcing grass bank.

Although what remains of the henge obviously needs to be protected I am not sure why E.H. has this site on their advertised list of ‘places to visit’.

It is a bit out of the way and I am sure the average visitor would be somewhat disappointed by what they find.

There are certainly other much better preserved henges people could visit and appreciate.

Marden Henge (and Hatfield Barrow)

Henge

CARL Jun 14, 2010

Visited 12.6.10..

Not much to report on this site. Very little to see other than some 'lumps and bumbs' in the fields. Not worth the effort unless you happen to be in the area with time to spend. At least it is another E.H. site ticked off my list. On another plus point there is a good view of a white horse carved out of the hillside in the distance. Not much else to recommend a visit I'm afraid.

Marden Henge (and Hatfield Barrow)

Henge

Rhiannon Jan 7, 2004

I like approaching sites on foot, so I parked in the village and walked. Marden is special amongst its similarly monumental friends (Avebury, Durrington..) because it uses a stream as part of its boundary; its banks and ditches only surround it on three sides. Crossing the stream and entering the henge I was fairly disgusted to see the meadow by the stream had been sold and houses are to be built on it. Surely a nationally important place should deserve more protection?

It's a further walk than you think to the banks on the far side of the monument. I felt pretty confused about their layout to start with. But when you get there look for the stile hidden up in the hedge (almost opposite the big trees, where there is a tiny spot on the road you could park in) – that's where you'll find the plan on the EH board that's in Earthstepper's photo. I then realised what a tiny proportion of the place is under the EHs guardianship.

Now I could see where the Silburyesque Hatfield Barrow had been. It was too cold to keep still, so I jumped back down onto the road and started to walk back towards the spot. A car heading for the village slowed next to me. "Can you tell me how far Marden is?" a coiffeured woman enquired. I restrained any sarcastic remarks. As she drove on I reflected on how the huge henge could go unnoticed in the modern world. I thought on: the Hatfield Barrow itself would have been a locally famous enigma, something in local people's consciousness for literally thousands of years. I felt really outraged. How could somebody just come along and ruin it?

I stood there mentally grasping for clues, trying desperately to understand what the mound would have been like. I probably looked bizarre: a shivering figure staring at an empty field. As the wind dropped and the sun finally appeared I got something of it in my mind. It loomed up in front of me. So ok, to some Marden isn't more than a few low banks and an empty meadow. But to me, just to visit the place and exercise my imagination, it was well worth it. I felt really pleased to have been in the same place where this huge mound once stood.

Marden Henge (and Hatfield Barrow)

Henge

Rhiannon Aug 19, 2012

Some time since, a young woman of the village, a member of one of the very few families who have resided on the spot continually for upwards of a century, told my son that a great battle had been fought ages ago on Marden down between men with red heads and men with black heads, and that the red-headed men won, she added that the dead were buried in a large cave on the down, and that nobody had ever dared to enter it. I have not been able to identify the cave, but it seems exceedingly probable that after the fight the slain were collected and buried with more than usual care, because the closest enquiry I have made has failed to trace any record of human remains, armour or weapons having been unearthed at any time in the neighbourhood.

[..]

In the barrow fields, beneath Camden's great sepulchral monument (Camden, writing in 1590, [says that] "the largest barrow in these parts, except Silbury, exists" in the parish), tradition says that great treasure is buried, and an old inhabitant assured me that once or twice it had been searched for ...

FromWiltshire Notes and Queries for March 1913.

Marden Henge (and Hatfield Barrow)

Henge

Rhiannon Oct 4, 2005

wiltshire.gov.uk/community/getconcise.php?id=14

Weirdness local to Marden – a settlement (now a house) lay to the east of the henge, called 'Puckshipton'. John Chandler (see link below) says this means 'The Goblin's Cattle Shed'. What must have happened here for the place to acquire this name? Or is it actually related to the henge itself (probably an ideal place for a goblin to corral his cattle). It is very close to the place where the Ridgeway crossed the River Avon (I take it at SU099577), a spot which was known as Wifelesford ('weevils'-ford').

Wiltshire Community History website

Marden Henge (and Hatfield Barrow)

Henge

Rhiannon Nov 20, 2003

John Aubrey claimed the site had 'a tradition of a fight' and that a great man was supposed to be buried in the mound. (from Burl's 'Prehistoric Avebury' p178).

Marden Henge (and Hatfield Barrow)

Henge

Rhiannon May 30, 2007

The lengthily titled 1832 book "The Family Topographer: Being a Compendious Account of the Antient and Present State of the Counties of England' by Samuel Tymms (volume two, "Western Circuit") refers to the mound as

"Earthworks, Marden, called Beechingstoke tumulus or Hatfield barrow, 35 feet high, and covers about an acre of ground."

- I thought I'd mention it as I've not seen the mound given this name before. It was more convincingly near Marden, but Beechingstoke is on the same side of the river (stream) so it may be a matter of territory.

Marden Henge (and Hatfield Barrow)

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Rhiannon Feb 26, 2007

This is part of a letter from James Norris, Esq. to Dr Withering. Nonesuch-House, Feb. 9, 1798. The idea of a moat reminds me of Silbury and its seasonal moat. Growing crops on the mound seems a bit bizarre. But maybe in pre-combine days it was easier to harvest.

.. near the village of Marden, is a remarkable tumulus called Hatfield-barrow; the only work of the kind, I believe, to be found in this lowland vale, although so very frequent on the elevated downs on both sides. It stands in an enclosure, and is above the usual size, and nearly hemispherical; it is surrounded by a broad circular intrenchment, which, from being constantly supplied with water by innate springs, forms a sort of moat, which does not become dry even in the midst of summer; a circumstance I have never found attending any other barrow. In this water ditch, the Menyanthese trifoliata or bogbean, plentifully grows: a plant which I have not seen elsewhere in that neighbourhood. The whole of the barrow is at present ploughed over, and is said to be more fertile than the surrounding field. I have seen it clothed with wheat ready for the sickle; when the richness of colour, and the beautiful undulations of the corn, formed an object as pleasing as it was uncommon.

From p236 of The Miscellaneous Tracts of the Late William Withering. Vol 1. 1822. Online at Google Books.

Marden Henge (and Hatfield Barrow)

Henge

Rhiannon Sep 21, 2005

From 'The Ancient History of Wiltshire' by Sir Richard Colt Hoare – with an excerpt from his 1809 journal, giving more details about the downfall of the barrow. Silbury pokers be warned.

The enormous tumulus.. called HATFIELD BARROW, is situated on the East side of the area; it is of a circular form, and has a deep and wide ditch around it, which in winter is nearly full of water, although the soil consists of a greenish sand.* From having been some time in tillage, the height is probably decreased some feet; its elevation about the floor of the barrow (viz. the original soil) is at present twenty two feet and a half..

We began our operations by making a large square opening in the centre, but the tumulus being composed of sand, which continually slipped down, we afterwards carried our section in the form of an inverted cone. When at the depth of about twenty two feet on the east side of the section, and eighteen on the west side, we came to the bottom of the barrow, but from the heavy masses of sand that still continued to slip down, several days elapsed before we could clear the space of about 23 by 24ft of the floor.

... but alas! notwithstanding all our energy and exertions, we were doomed to remain in ignorance respecting the original destination of this gigantic barrow; and fortunately had not (added to our disappointment [sic?]) to regret the loss of several of our labourers, who most providentially escaped an untimely end by having been called off from their work by Mr Cunnington, at a time when the soil of the barrow appeared sound, but proved otherwise by falling in very shortly after the men had quitted their labours...

On revisiting this ground in the autumn of the year 1818, I had the unexpected mortification to find, that the great barrow had been completely levelled to the ground, and no signs remained of its previous existence.

Mortification indeed.

Marden Henge (and Hatfield Barrow)

Henge

Rhiannon Nov 23, 2004

Marden not only had its huge banks and the Hatfield Barrow – it had another mysterious mound. You can see where it was on the picture of the map above (quaintly marked 'site of tumulus'). William Cunnington described the 60m diameter feature in 1807 (he was Colt Hoare's foreman and chief Hatfield Barrow Ruiner):

"Its vallum [bank] is slightly raised and the interior rises gradually to a low apex. On digging within the area we found a few bits of old pottery, and a little charred wood but no marks of any interment."

Sixty metres is pretty big – only a little smaller than the size of Woodhenge. Mike Pitts (in Hengeworld) hints that the feature could have been a Woodhenge-style enclosure with posts, rather than a barrow.. but of course (in line with the general lack of investigation at Marden?) the spot has never been archaeologically examined...

Marden Henge (and Hatfield Barrow)

Henge

Rhiannon Nov 23, 2004

Mike Pitts mentions the following in his 'Hengeworld' book:

In 1769, John Mayo (local vicar) wrote a letter to the Society of Antiquaries in London. A farmer had levelled part of the bank surrounding Marden the previous year and had found a human skeleton, which Mayo reckoned to have been a person "about 6ft 2 or 3 inches high."

Interestingly, he also noted that "a great many Staggs Horns were digged up." – of course, antlers have been found at many other neolithic sites (Avebury for example), having been used to dig out the giant ditches.

Marden Henge (and Hatfield Barrow)

Henge

Rhiannon Feb 24, 2004

In Burl's 'Prehistoric Henges' he states that the huge earthworks of Marden and Durrington Walls, etc are so big, and contain so much evidence of permanent occupation, that they have to be interpreted as settlement sites, rather than 'henges'.

Clearly 'ritual' things were going on at Marden – after all, it contained the Hatfield Barrow, and even has a little henge within its boundary. But its area is huge at 14ha, much bigger than any 'normal' henge. Burl (incongruously) says you could park 16,000 cars in it if you wanted. He thinks it was more a territorial centre, with the earthworks having a defensive role, rather than being the henge itself.

Marden Henge (and Hatfield Barrow)

Henge

Rhiannon Jan 7, 2004

Extracts from a note-book by Sir R C Hoare.

(Wilts Arch and Nat Hist Mag vol 22)

Sat. Oct 10, 1807.

Mild and fine day. Went in a chaise to Marden, a village on the right of the great road leading to Devizes. Here there is a very singular earthen work that has been unnoticed by antiquaries. From the circumstances of the ditch being on the inside, and the vallum without, we may safely pronounce it to have been a religious, not a military work. Its form, however, is not circular like that of Abury, but very irregular...

Curiosity is not alone confined to this outward and stupendous vallum. The interior of the arc contains two very interesting fragments of antiquity. A large tumulus, the third, I think, in size after Silbury and the Castle Hill at Marlborough. This tumulus is named in the map Hatfield barrow. The etymology of which, as given me by a native farmer, was derived from the unproductive quality of the soil, which occasioned it being called Hatefield.

This tumulus is not placed in the centre of the area, but towards the northern angle of it, or rather north-western. As our operations on it are not yet terminated I can give no account either of its contents or destination. From the moisture of the substratum of sand I have much doubt if we shall be able effectually to explore it.

Our workmen had a most providential escape, by being taken off to another spot by Mr Cunnington, when during their absence several ton weight of earth fell in, at a time when the floor of the barrow was nearly uncovered.

On the south-west side of the enclosure is a low circular work – very similar to one we know near Southley Wood [here?], Warminster – it is intersected by a hedge.

The manoeuvres of the day being interrupted by the heavy fall of earth, I left Marden and ascended the chalk hills...

...Returned to Everley gratified and benefitted, as usual, by my ride amongst the Britons."

Marden Henge (and Hatfield Barrow)

Henge

Rhiannon May 28, 2003

To the casual observer Marden Henge might look like a field full of dandelions, but it actually belongs to the 'superhenges' that include Avebury, Mount Pleasant, Durrington and others. It's one of the largest henge monuments spanning 530m by 360m and was built c2400BC. The land it's on was cleared some time before this (they can tell from the types of snails found at the site). Excavation of the site in the 60s showed that there had been a 10.5m diameter timber structure within the henge – though the post holes were very shallow, which suggests it was open to the sky.

The henge is bordered on one side by the River Avon. It's been suggested that via the river there could have been communication between this site and the one at Durrington. These two henges are both near water – it seems that the superhenges are also associated with causewayed enclosures: Avebury with Windmill Hill, Mount Pleasant with Maiden Castle, and Marden to Rybury and Knap Hill.

The Hatfield Barrow was reputedly a mound like its neighbours at Marlborough and Silbury – Neolithic and with no burial inside. It was much smaller though, only a fifth of the size of Marlborough Mound. In 1768 the Reverend Mayo recorded that the mound was 70yds to 80yds (70ish m) in diameter and 30ft (9m) high. Regrettably it no longer exists.

William Cunnington excavated the sandy mound in October 1807. Eight men worked for him over ten days, sinking a great conical pit into the top. In the core Cunnington found some ash, some charred wood, some sherds of pot, and bones of red deer, pig, and a large bird.

Almost immediately (and hardly surprising to the workmen, surely) the sides started to fall in and the mound slumped into a heap. Great. Within a few years a tidy fellow called Mr Perry shovelled the remainder into the ditch of the henge, and by 1818 there was nothing to see.

(info from Burl's 'Prehistoric Avebury')

Marden Henge (and Hatfield Barrow)

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Rhiannon Jan 25, 2014

Academia.edu

"Journeys and Juxtapositions: Marden Henge and the View from the Vale," by Jim Leary and David Field (2012).

"This short paper sets out a summary of a project to investigate the henge at Marden and its surroundings in the Vale of Pewsey, which includes an excavation carried out in 2010 across the footprint of the now demolished Neolithic mound known as the Hatfield Barrow and the discovery of a well-preserved Neolithic building surface and midden. It argues that whilst archaeologists have traditionally focussed on the Wessex chalk upland, the real action happened in the river valleys, with rivers and springs being of particular significance to communities during the Neolithic period."

Marden Henge (and Hatfield Barrow)

Henge

tjj Feb 5, 2011

Digital Digging - Marden Henge

The Marvellous Marden Henge – talk given by Jim Leary, 5th February 2011. Jim Leary talk was on the excavation which took place at Marden Henge in the summer of 2010.

Situated approximately half-way between Avebury and Stonehenge, near the head of the River Avon, it is the least known henge; there is no stone circle.

First recorded 1806 in Gough's edition of Camden's Britannia. Excavated by Richard Colt Hoare, William Cunnington and Philip Crocker in 1809.

In 1809 a shaft was sunk to the bottom of Hatfield Barrow (thought to be approximately nine metres high). The barrow, being constructed of greensand, became unstable and collapsed in on itself. Findings were published in Colt Hoare's Ancient Britain; around 1818 the mound was levelled by the farmer.

Geoffrey Wainwright did some work in 1969 and conclusively showed it was late Neolithic – the southern barrow remains, though hidden from view. The southern bank of the henge is open and faces out towards the river Avon; a geophys survey also showed there was a south-east entrance.

The most important finding of the 2010 excavation was patch of chalk on the southern bank which was almost certainly the floor of a Neolithic building; part of a hearth is visible and although excavation was not fully completed, it is thought to be the best preserved Neolithic building in England – superior even to Durrington Walls. There is a nearby midden (rubbish dump) where pig bones and highly decorated Neolithic pottery were found. Also found were two beautifully preserved flint arrowheads and two bone pins.

Jim Leary would very much like to continue the work – and we can only hope that in today's uncertain financial climate it will be possible.

Marden Henge (and Hatfield Barrow)

Henge

Littlestone Aug 2, 2010

Wiltshire Heritage Museum

"Included in the 3,500 records of items in the collections of Wiltshire Heritage Museum in Devizes recently uploaded to the www.wiltshireheritagecollections.org.uk/ website, are records for the artefacts found at the 1969 excavation of Marden Henge, currently being excavated by English Heritage.

"The prehistoric site at Marden is 8 miles south east of Devizes and halfway between Avebury and Stonehenge. It is the largest henge monument in Britain, enclosing an area of around 14 hectares with its enormous bank and ditch. English Heritage's current excavations at Marden have resulted in more new and important discoveries being made, including the floor of a prehistoric rectangular building, estimated to be some 4,500 years old!"