Soldier’s Grave

Nearest town:
Stroud (6km NE)
OS reference:
SO794015
OS sheet:
162
Latitude:
51° 42' 40.83 N
Longitude:
2° 17' 53.47 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Soldier’s Grave (Round Cairn) by thesweetcheat

A path runs right across the middle of the barrow, which is causing further erosion.

Image credit: A. Brookes (25.5.2024)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Apr 23, 2025
Image of Soldier’s Grave (Round Cairn) by thesweetcheat

Looking south-ish. If the trees were removed, Nympsfield long barrow would probably be visible.

Image credit: A. Brookes (25.5.2024)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Apr 23, 2025
Image of Soldier’s Grave (Round Cairn) by thesweetcheat

The bluebell-filled beech woods around the barrow are lovely at this time of year.

Image credit: A. Brookes (27.5.2013)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jul 18, 2013
Image of Soldier’s Grave (Round Cairn) by GLADMAN

Ravaged by ‘visitors’ and more or less reclaimed by Mother Nature.... so perhaps the latter is for the best?

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Mar 4, 2013
Image of Soldier’s Grave (Round Cairn) by thesweetcheat

The Soldier’s Grave, surrounded by trees and vegetation.

Image credit: A. Brookes (26.4.09)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jun 7, 2009
Image of Soldier’s Grave (Round Cairn) by juamei

Ghostly apparition standing in the feck off huge hole in the middle of the barrow.

juamei
juamei Mar 2, 2006
Image of Soldier’s Grave (Round Cairn) by juamei

You can kinda see the mound in the middle of the picture. Kinda.

juamei
juamei Mar 2, 2006

Articles

Soldier’s Grave

C
CARL Jan 5, 2012

Visited 28.12.11

I wasn’t planning on re-visiting this site but as Nympsfield Long Barrow was crawling with people I decided to take a walk through the woods to visit the Barrow.

There is not much to add from my previous visit other than the ruined wall you walk over has now pretty much totally fallen down. The evident ‘path’ through the trees shows that this lesser well known site does get its fair amount of visitors.

If the trees were not here there would be spectacular views to be had across the Severn Valley. Whoever was buried here must have been someone of importance. Pity he/she wasn’t left alone.

While I was mooching about near the Barrow a lady looking slightly distressed was looking for her Labrador puppy. I hope she found it.

Soldier’s Grave

C
CARL Mar 16, 2010

Not much to see but easy to find and access. If you are stood in the car park looking at the view down the valley, head for the right hand corner of the car park – where the trees are. Walk into the wooded area and you will see the barrow in front of you.

Soldier’s Grave

thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jun 7, 2009

About a hundred yards north of Nympsfield long barrow, this seems to be largely ignored by visitors. I visited on 26.4.09 and despite the number of cars and people about, no-one else came this way while I was there.

As you enter the wood from the direction of the long barrow, you’re confronted with this large round barrow almost immediately. Rather like the largest of Emma’s Grove round barrows, this is a big old thing. It’s surrounded by trees, which cut off any views to the west. Worth a quick look if you’re in the area.

From here I headed back east to Buckholt Wood, which is a short walk and scramble away.

Soldier’s Grave

juamei
juamei Mar 2, 2006

[visited 02/06] This is a large ruined round cairn/barrow on the edge of the same escarpment as Nympsfield and Hetty Pegler’s Tump. Its a bit of a sad sight to be honest, given the massive hole in the middle, but is worth a look if you are in the neighbourhood. The views would have been awesome before the forest arrived...

It’s in the woods to the NW of Nympsfield long barrow. Starting at the long barrow, head away from the car park to about 10 metres from the corner of the grassy area. Now go into the woods and head along the edge of the escarpment straight to the barrow. Access is ok, but probably a bit rough terrain for a wheelchair.

Miscellaneous

Soldier’s Grave
Round Cairn
Chance
Chance Jul 9, 2012

Details of site on Pastscape

A round cairn of Early Bronze Age (or possibly Late Neolithic) date located circa 200 metres north of the Nympsfield long barrow (SO 70 SE 6) on the escarpment edge overlooking the vale of Berkeley. It was excavated in 1937, although by then it had been considerably disturbed, presumably by earlier unrecorded excavations. In 1937, it was measured at 56 feet in diameter and 7 feet high, although the previous unrecorded digging had left the centre resembling a large crater rather than a mound. The mound consisted entirely of stone, with no earth content. A stone kerb also appears to have originally surrounded the foot of the mound. Beneath the centre was a rock-cut boat-shaped pit lined with drystone walling, the “pointy” end facing south. The pit is presumed to have been covered originally by slabs, some being found in the nearby woodland. The pit was a maximum 11 feet in length and 4.5 feet wide, and was up to 3.75 feet deep. The pit contained a large quantity of disturbed, disarticulated and fragmented human remains representing between 28 and 44 individuals, adult and children, male and female all being represented. Some animal bones (ox, pig and dog) were also in the pit, as were two sherds of pottery. Some potsehrds were also found on the edge of the pit, while further sherds and animal bones were contained within the mound, along with the skeletal remains of a further adult male. The pottery was considered at the time to be Early Bronze Age, although the sherds are undiagnostic and effectively undated. The collective nature of the burials has prompted comparisons with Neolithic burial practices, although again the remains are effectively undated.

SO 794015 (1). A round cairn situated in a wood about 230 yds. north of the Nympsfield long barrow (SO 70 SE 6) and measuring 56ft. in diamter by 7ft. high, is known as the Soldier’s Grave. When excavated by Mrs Clifford in 1937 it was found to have been opened many years previously, and the centre removed. The mound was built entirely of freestone, without any admixture of soil, and below it in the centre was a rock-cut boat-shaped tomb lined with dry stone walling, and presumed to have been originally covered by stone slabs, two of which were found nearby. In the tomb were the remains of between 28 and 44 individuals; and incorporated in the mound were the bones of one adult male. Pottery found in the tomb and mound, and examined by Stuart Piggott, dates the barrow as Early Bronze Age, although it retains the collective burial rites of the Neolithic period (2) The shape of the tomb may relate it to the late B1 Beaker-makers who spread from Gloucestershire to Brecknock and Glamorgan, where there are similar shaped vaults, thought to suggest a ritual belief in a voyage of the dead(3) (1-3)
SO79370152 A mutilated cairn up to 2.3 metres high with an off-centre, 1.5 metre deep pit. Surveyed at 1/2500 (4)
The soldier’s Grave round barrow is suggested by Darvill as of a category that may be dated to the Neolithic period. (5)
Soldier’s Grave. Listed by Kinnis as an example of a Neolithic round cairn with a boat-shaped rock-cut pit containing the fragmentary disarticulated remains of a minimum of 28 adults and children and plain pottery. (6)
A round cairn of Early Bronze Age (or possibly Late Neolithic) date located circa 200 metres north of the Nympsfield long barrow (SO 70 SE 6) on the escarpment edge overlooking the vale of Berkeley. It was excavated in 1937, although by then it had been considerably disturbed, presumably by earlier unrecorded excavations. In 1937, it was measured at 56 feet in diameter and 7 feet high, although the previous unrecorded digging had left the centre resembling a large crater rather than a mound. The mound consisted entirely of stone, with no earth content. A stone kerb also appears to have originally surrounded the foot of the mound. Beneath the centre was a rock-cut boat-shaped pit lined with drystone walling, the “pointy” end facing south. The pit is presumed to have been covered originally by slabs, some being found in the nearby woodland. The pit was a maximum 11 feet in length and 4.5 feet wide, and was up to 3.75 feet deep. The pit contained a large quantity of disturbed, disarticulated and fragmented human remains representing between 28 and 44 individuals, adult and children, male and female all being represented. Some animal bones (ox, pig and dog) were also in the pit, as were two sherds of pottery. Some potsehrds were also found on the edge of the pit, while further sherds and animal bones were contained within the mound, along with the skeletal remains of a further adult male. The pottery was considered at the time to be Early Bronze Age, although the sherds are undiagnostic and effectively undated. The collective nature of the burials has prompted comparisons with Neolithic burial practices, although again the remains are effectively undated. (2, 6, 8-10)

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SOURCE TEXT
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( 1) Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society O’Neil, H and L Grinsell. Gloucestershire Barrows 79 (1), 1960 Page(s)98
( 2) Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society Clifford, EM. The SOldier’s Grave, Frocester, Gloucestershire 4, 1938 Page(s)214-8
( 3) edited by I LL Foster and Glyn Daniel 1965 Prehistoric and early Wales Page(s)83
( 4) Field Investigators Comments F1 MJF 06-JUN-72
( 5) edited by Alan Saville 1984 Archaeology in Gloucestershire from the earliest hunters to the industrial age : essays dedicated to Helen O’Neil and the late Elsie Clifford Page(s)103, 134-6
( 6) by Ian Kinnes 1979 Round barrows and ring-ditches in the British Neolithic British Museum occasional papers no.7 Page(s)21
( 7) Scheduled Monument Notification 13-OCT-1999
(8) by Timothy Darvill 1987 Prehistoric Gloucestershire Page(s)74
(9) Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society Oakley, KP. Cowry Shell and Flint Cores from Ashen Plains, Dursely, Gloucestershire [p95] 64, 1943 Page(s)89-95
(10) Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society Clifford, EM. The Excavation of Nympsfield Long Barrow, Gloucestershire. Page(s)188-213

Miscellaneous

Soldier’s Grave
Round Cairn
juamei
juamei Mar 2, 2006

Dyer describes this as a Neolithic – Bronze age transitional barrow. It contained a boat shaped rock cut grave lined with dry stone walling holding the remains of at least 28 people.

Sites within 20km of Soldier’s Grave

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