Images (7)
Fieldnotes (1)
Miscellaneous (1)

Images

Image of Bummers Hill (Round Barrow(s)) by GLADMAN

Worth knocking at the farm if you fancy a chill out upon the mound.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone

GLADMAN Sep 25, 2011

Image credit: Robert Gladstone

GLADMAN Sep 25, 2011

Image credit: Robert Gladstone

GLADMAN Sep 25, 2011

From the back........ more defined here.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone

GLADMAN Sep 25, 2011

Heavily overgrown and with no official public access, this is nevertheless a substantial surviving monument well worth seeing... in my opinion. The farm house rises beyond.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone

GLADMAN Sep 25, 2011

Wouldn’t recommend coming by car.... seems you have to wait a while to judge from this ‘car park’.......... The barrow rises to the left of the green tank.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone

GLADMAN Sep 25, 2011

Bummers Hill? How could any TMA-er not come here with a name like that? If even just to wind up all the homophobes.....the barrow is centre skyline, the harvested crop traversed by a right of way.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone

GLADMAN Sep 25, 2011

Articles

Bummers Hill

Round Barrow(s)

GLADMAN Mar 8, 2012

Here’s one to which to take your kids – assuming you have any of the little blighters, of course – and chuckle whilst imagining prim Ms Wilberforce (all starchy white blouse and heaving bosom) wishing she’d never asked little Johnny what he did at the weekend.... much to the amusement of the other children in class. Ha! But, hey, I kid you not, this is what it’s called. Check the map.

The monument upon Bummers Hill is actually quite an upstanding round barrow, albeit heavilly overgrown and sited behind barbed wire immediately north – and in full view of – Mutfords Farm. An adjacent farmyard of ancient, rusting cars adds a somewhat ‘hill-billy vibe’ to proceedings, but (thankfully... not to mention obviously) shotgun wielding country dudes are conspicuous by their absence. In fact there is no answer at the farm, so I assume no-one will mind if I go and have a little look at close quarters.

The positionning of the barrow is interesting, overlooking Little Hormead Brook to the north and the River Quin – not that ‘mighty’ (hence just the one ‘n’)... but it does the job – to the west. Other minor streams complete the water features, the presence of these perhaps a significant original factor, perhaps not?

Bummers Hill will not blow visitors away with its size, siting or vibe. No, there is a softer... dare I say it, more ‘mundane’ feeling in the air here, set upon a working farm in a sleepy corner of Hertfordshire. But to me that is precisely its charm. It’s just... well.... here. No fanfare, no information board. Almost as if it’s always been here, a part of the landscape itself. Which, if you think of it, is not that far from the truth. And, somehow, it’s survived the millennia. Right on!

I approached from the north, parking in a dedicated ‘field car park’ set aside for visitors to the church. Reach the latter by taking Worsted Lane from the B1368, then turning right.

Bummers Hill

Round Barrow(s)

ocifant Aug 6, 2003

From the EH Record of Scheduled Monuments:

Bummers Hill bowl barrow is situated on the north end of a prominent ridge overlooking the River Quin. The monument includes an earthen mound which measures 24m in diameter and 2.82m in maximum height. Although no longer visible at ground level, a ditch, from which material was quarried during the construction of the monument, surrounds the mound. This has become infilled over the years but survives as a buried feature c.3m wide.