Boughton

Details of barrow on Pastscape

(SP 74716589) Tumulus (AT) (1)
Photograph of the barrow (?) exhibited in Northampton Museum. (2) Probably a barrow, situated in an arable field. In fair condition, it is tree covered and has been disturbed on top where an excavation was attempted by a student who encountered roots and abandoned the project. No ditch is evident. See annotated 25” survey. (3)
Barrow,pits and ditches(centred SP 74756585),E and SE of Boughton Grange on Northampton Sand at 106m above OD. The mound, which stands on the N edge of the field, is tree covered, and an attempted excavation shortly before 1968 was not completed because of the roots. The mound is 2.2m high and 15m in diam. and no ditch is visible. Two pits or ditches were found in the face of the ironstone quarry in the same field in 1973. From one of these came a sherd of a Neolithic or Bronze Age vessel with a pronounced shoulder-ridge and finger-nail decoration on the collar (SP 74746569). Several worked flints have been found in the same field;air photographs in NMR.(4)

The barrow just outside Boughton village is 2m high and 20m in diameter. It lies unploughed and covered in vegetation in a cultivated field. A ditch encircled the mound – you may be able to see traces of this. In the 1970s, pottery and Bronze Age flints were found in pits in the southern end of the field.

Boughton House is nearby – it was originally the site of a monastery but was converted in the 1500s into a grand Versailles wannabe. The gardens include ‘The Mound’: considerably bigger than our little round barrow (!) but could it have been inspired by prehistory? Stukeley himself designed a mausoleum for the top of it in 1742 (though it was never built).

The village was also the site of a medieval fair, a turf maze, and still has St John’s holy well with its ruined church. It may (or may not) be relevant that St John’s day is at the midsummer solstice.