Three Barrows

Also known as:
Monument No. 225544
Nearest town:
Swindon (13km W)
OS reference:
SU276810
OS sheet:
174
Latitude:
51° 31' 36.14 N
Longitude:
1° 36' 7.59 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Three Barrows by stoer

Looking east across Three Barrows.

Image credit: Pete Wayne 2010
stoer
stoer Mar 3, 2010
Image of Three Barrows by stoer

Contemporary Earthwork defining ridge just to the north of Three Barrows.

Image credit: Pete Wayne 2010
stoer
stoer Mar 3, 2010
Image of Three Barrows by stoer

Looking north towards Three Barrows

Image credit: Pete Wayne 2010
stoer
stoer Mar 3, 2010
Image of Three Barrows by Chance

View looking towards Alfred’s Castle from the edge of the cemetery

Image credit: Chance - May 2008
Chance
Chance Apr 30, 2009
Image of Three Barrows by Chance

View of the interlocking ditches made out in cow parsley.

Image credit: Chance - May 2008
Chance
Chance Apr 30, 2009
Image of Three Barrows by Chance

View looking across Idstone Down from the top of the middle barrow. Ashdown house can be seen on the right. On the far right lies the access track by the medieval farm house. The track on the far left is a bridle way which runs through the middle of the cemetery.

Image credit: Chance - May 2008
Chance
Chance Apr 30, 2009

Articles

Three Barrows

stoer
stoer Mar 3, 2010

Walking up from Fognam, the trail runs across a series of fields running parallel to the Medieval Park Pale surrounding Ashdown; to the south in the valley bottom runs the Sugar Way, which runs from the barrow cemetery on Sugar Hill, to Hackpen Hill via Seven Barrows.

The main barrows, Three Barrows, line east-west along the north ridge of Idstone Down. Just to the north, defining the ridge is an earthwork running east-west which is contemporaneous with the development of the barrow cemetery. There are additional barrows noted in Pastscape as crop markings and also further down the hill.

The barrows are quite exposed, the weather this evening having a strong windchill; usually in this area you can also see one of the large herds of Fallow Deer which are part of the Ashdown Estate.

Miscellaneous

Three Barrows
Barrow / Cairn Cemetery
Chance
Chance Aug 21, 2012

Details of Site on Pastscape

[Centred SU 27508102] THREE BARROWS [G.T.] [SU 27668102] TUMULUS [GT] (Site of). (1)
Three Barrows, south of Old Ditch on Idstone Down, Ashbury are in a line, almost touching one another; central hollows suggest excavation, but of this there is no record (3).
A – Bowl Barrow, 17 yards in diameter and 4 1/2 feet high, no visible ditch.
B – Bowl barrow, hollow in centre, mound 18 yards in diameter and 5 feet high, no visible ditch.
C – Bowl barrow, 18 yards in diameter and 4 1/2 ft high, hollow in centre, no visible ditch.
D – This barrow was opened in 1878; interment found. Nothing is now visible (2). Date c.1600-1200 B.C.
North of the “Three Barrows”; at Ashbury, at the bottom of the hill, is a small unfinished barrow with ditch completed for
only three-quarters of the circumference (5). (2-5)
The “Three-Barrows” are as described and measured by Grinsell. There is no trace of barrow ‘D’ the published site of which is
under pasture. Published survey (25”) revised. (6)
The earthwork remains of the three probable Bronze Age round barrows described by the previous authorities were seen centred at SU 2745 8102, SU 2747 8101 and SU 2750 8101. All were mapped from aerial photographs. (8)

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SOURCE TEXT
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( 1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date) OS 6” 1960
( 2) Bedfordshire Archaeological Society Bedfordshire archaeological journal (L.V.Grinsell) 40, 1936 Page(s)31
( 3) Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Object Name Book reference ONB, Berkshire, 19 SW. 1910 Page(s)5, 13
( 4) Nicholas Thomas 1960 A guide to prehistoric England Page(s)41
( 5) edited by P H Ditchfield and William Page 1906 The Victoria history of Berkshire, volume one The Victoria history of the counties of England Page(s)277
( 6) Field Investigators Comments F1 NVQ 02-MAR-64
( 7) Scheduled Monument Notification 16-NOV-1998
( 8) Vertical aerial photograph reference number RAF 106G/UK/1416/3293 14-APR-1946

Miscellaneous

Three Barrows
Barrow / Cairn Cemetery
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 23, 2004

Although called ‘Three Barrows’ on the OS map, these three are actually at the centre of a Bronze Age barrow cemetery which runs along the crest of Idstone Down. There are nine more round barrows in this linear group running NW / SE. The ‘Three’ however lie in a line east to west, and are 1.5m, 1.6m and 1.3m high – they are thought to be the ‘core’ around which the rest of the cemetery grew up. The smr record on Magic interestingly says that they lie so close together that their ditches would have been interlocking. At some time two of them have been dug into, but no details are known of the excavations. The surrounding area has produced many finds of worked flints for archaeologists.

Sites within 20km of Three Barrows

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