Black Coppice Chambered Cairn

Nearest town:
Chorley (4km WSW)
OS reference:
SD621186
OS sheet:
109
Latitude:
53° 39' 43.87 N
Longitude:
2° 34' 25.01 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Black Coppice Chambered Cairn by Rivington Pike

Capstone of cairn showing the close relationship of Black Coppice quarry (behind the barb wire fence)

Image credit: Ian Barrow
Rivington Pike
Rivington Pike Feb 15, 2004
Image of Black Coppice Chambered Cairn by treehugger-uk

Directions to the tomb/ park at the cricket ground take the path up past the clubhouse follow the aqueduct up on the right hand side it cuts between the 2 slopes basically either scramble up the side of black coppice and wander across the top or follow it round to the right till you see the fence which goes up the hill and round the side of the chasm, follow the fence up as soon as the fence turns right look to your left and you are looking at the back of the capstone to your left about 20yards away you cant miss it!

Image credit: treehugger-uk
treehugger-uk
treehugger-uk Oct 28, 2003
Image of Black Coppice Chambered Cairn by treehugger-uk

Another shot note the 2 cottages and reservoir in the background this will give you a good indication of location with the map i’ve supplied

Image credit: treehugger-uk
treehugger-uk
treehugger-uk Oct 28, 2003
Image of Black Coppice Chambered Cairn by treehugger-uk

Another image of the entrance its only a single chamber but easily big enough to climb inside

Image credit: treehugger-uk
treehugger-uk
treehugger-uk Oct 28, 2003

Articles

Black Coppice Chambered Cairn

daveyravey
daveyravey Mar 4, 2004

There are lots of candidate for this title when you go up here first of all, I counted 4 similar structures, but when I found this one it was excellent. There is no evidence of carving, but this is very similar to the Pike Stones. I have mentioned that this forms an equillateral triangle with Roundloaf and Pike Stones and could be connected with Stronstrey Bank Stone.

Dave 3rd March 2004

Black Coppice Chambered Cairn

juamei
juamei Feb 23, 2004

[visited 22/02/04] I came here last on my day out to watch
the sunset over the lancashire plains, but changed my mind when I realised how likely I was to hurt myself going down the escarpment in the dark...
It really is a mess up here, I’m not convinced that much is prehistoric, given the huge industrial mill? stones just off the edge of the quarry. However if most of it is prehistoric then its a big cemetary, something like Raven Tor or even one of the barrow cemetarys down south (Poor Lot springs to mind.)
Well worth a visit, the views are spectacular & who knows what else is lurking under the heathery peat.

Black Coppice Chambered Cairn

Rivington Pike
Rivington Pike Feb 15, 2004

Finally manage to make the time to visit the site. After leaving White Coppice cricket ground and avoiding a long line of walkers ( I forgot the Anglezarke Amble was taking place) I manage to scramble up the steep bank to the plateau above Black Coppice.

The large capstone of the cairn was clearly visible on the horizon about 20 feet back from the top edge of the quarry. Arriving at the site the cavity formed by the cap stone propped up on the underlying rocks was clearly seen. The cairn was surrounded by a spread of an assortment of rocks / boulders that may have been part of the structure. Adjacent to the site was a depression containing 3 stone mill wheels in various stages of manufacture.

With the close proximity of the quarry and the mill wheels, and without any datable evidence for the cairn, its hard to tell if it is ancient or contempory with the industrial features.

To the north of the cairn I found another feature of note. This consists of a curvi- linear spread of hand sized boulders forming an arc of approx. 30 ft diameter. At the centre of the arc was an upright stone approx. 18” tall.

As this feature does not appear on the 1st edition or modern O.S. maps and so doesn’t have a name or date its not possible to add this as a new site on T.M.A.

But, as my Archaeology tutor drummed into me :-
“the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.”
So maybe these sites should be added !!

Black Coppice Chambered Cairn

treehugger-uk
treehugger-uk Feb 2, 2004

I climbed up here with relative ease against my better judgement in the ice and snow! My reasoning behind this was the structures would be a little clearer now the undergrowth had died back somewhat due to the colder weather (at least thats how I convinced myself that climbing up here was a sane thing to do).

As I said in my previous fieldnotes there’s lots to see here. I found the possible remains of a stone row, although you could probably imagine all sorts of alignments with the rocks and structures on top here. There’re many possible standing stones and four clearly banked circular structures with depressions in the middle surrounding the tomb, two of them having possibly fallen capstones. In the centre I also checked out the alignment of the tomb, which is alligned almost perfectly NW/SW.

Whatever you make of it up here the views are stunning and its a great place just to sit and contemplate.

Black Coppice Chambered Cairn

treehugger-uk
treehugger-uk Oct 28, 2003

Finding and locating this tomb has become a personal quest for me bordering on obsession! I first read about a 2nd chambered barrow on the notice board at the pikestones which mentioned the pikestones was one of only two chambered tombs ever found in the Lancashire area. So where was the other one I asked myself? I started a forum posting here called the missing tomb and got help from some of the members here (special thanks to rivington pike and hob) and also got help from a chap at LCC who kindly pointed out two possible sites of interest (I’m still investigating the third and will post results of my finds there too).
Back to the main event though there’s lots of archaeology surrounding the chamber some old, some a little more modern. Too much to photograph but I never expected an intact chamber as id seen other structures close by which could have been it , so I resigned myself to the fact it was on of those structures, which made me feel mildly disappointed at not being able to pinpoint it.
I was running around in the background taking photos as usual whilst my lady was enjoying the view, I decided to go over to her and contemplate the view too, as I did I stumbled across the chamber. I was blown away and just froze for several seconds what a find! A completely intact chamber fantastic! we both were delighted a truly wonderful find, more than we expected after seeing the sad state the pikestones were left in.
The chamber is roughly orientated east with back of the mound roughly west (I had no compass at the time) so don’t quote me on that! A great sense of peace surrounds you inside it has a very womby effect indeed after the wind blowing you on the plateau.
Although I’m happy to share this find please ensure care and respect around these monuments id hate anything to happen to this place, id feel partly responsible for bringing the monument to other peoples attention, but I guess its lasted this long and I know your all good people on here so enjoy!

Sites within 20km of Black Coppice Chambered Cairn

Like all websites everywhere, we use cookies.