From Camden’s “Britannia” (1586):
“in a place called Biscawe Woune are nineteen stones in a circle, twelve feet from each other, and in the circle stands one much larger than the rest”
Perhaps Nicholas Crane should visit as part of his current Camden’s Britannia series on BBC2?
From “Speculi Britannia pars” – Norden (circa 1584), the first description of the quoit:
“Tretheuie, called in Latine Casa gigantis, a litle howse raysed of mightie stones, standing on a litle hill within a feilde, the form hereunder expressed.”
and
“This monument standeth in the parish of St Clere. The cover being all one stone, is from A to B 16 foote in length, the bredth from C to D is 10 foote, the thicknes from G to H is 2 foote; E is an artificiall holl 8 inches diameter, made thorowgh the roofe very rounde, which served as it seemeth to putt out a staffe, whereof the howse itself was not capable: F was the dore or entrance”
It is interesting that Dr Borlase did not mention Trethevy and the next published reference was in 1801 (“Beauties of England and Wales” – Britton and Bayley).
From “Beauties of England and Wales” – Britton and Bayley (1801):
Within a furlong of the north-east of the church, is a small Druidical Circle, that has not hitherto been noticed. It consists of seven or eight stones, one of which is about nine feet in height: four are upright, the others are either broken, or concealed by a hedge, which divides the circle; part being in an orchard, and part in an adjoining field. We are unable to state its dimensions accurately, but its diameter does not appear to exceed twenty or twenty-five feet
This may be the earliest published reference to the circle?
Info about the site from “Gloucestershire Barrows” – H. O’Neil and L.V.Grinsell (1960) Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Arch. Soc., listing three barrows, the largest of which, based on 1959 measurements, is 12ft high from W, 6ft high from E. On top is a hollow 10 yards diameter and 3.5 ft deep. The mound is surrounded by a ditch 11ft wide and 3.5 ft deep and there are slight indications of an outer bank.
In 1981, W.L. Cox (“Prehistoric and Roman Sites of the Cheltenham area” (1981 2nd ed)) recorded the site as:
“One large round barrow and the remains of a small one, the latter being difficult to see SW of the former. They are situated in a small plantation alongside the B4070 from the Air Balloon to Birdlip and opposite the entrance to the car park of the Inn. The large mound is taller (12ft) from the west, than the east (6ft), owing to the slope of the ground.
Without investigation it is difficult to date these mounds but the siting below the ridge would suggest a Bronze Age date 3000 years old”
In 1987, a “clandestine hole” was dug into the largest barrow, revealing a “limestone cairn structure” (Gloucestershire Barrows: supplement 1961 – 1988” – T.C.Darvill and L.V. Grinsell (1989) Trans of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Arch. Soc.
Barrow excavated in 1912, found to enclose three stone-lined graves, containing the skeletons of an adult male, and adult female and a child, plus a selection of grave goods including bone pins, flint tools and a white polished pebble.
Gloucestershire HER:
The first record of the barrow dates to 1625 when a juror’s report on the manor of Cheltenham noted ‘the stones of Northfield Hill’ as one of the boundary markers of the manor. The barrow mound was partially excavated in 1912 by HC Hill, at which time it was about 3.5m high and 12m in diameter. The large depression in the centre of the barrow is thought to result from this excavation. The barrow was found to have been systematically constructed from alternate layers of stone and earth, with three primary burials lying in separate stone cists about 1.8m from the top of the mound. The burials included the remains of two adults and a child which were associated with a number of grave goods including a flint knife, a flint saw, a whetstone, a crystal and a polished white pebble. A secondary burial was found to have been dug into the side of the mound. Considerable evidence for burning was found on the original ground surface, and the site was covered over with rubble ‘for the purpose of preservation’.
Now only 10m diameter though probable original extent indicated by slight swelling in ground. There is an enormous hole in the centre of this barrow, so that very little of the circumference survives & this is partially ploughed.
The fort encloses c. 7 acres with a single bank rampart on the south and east sides (the north and west sides are defended by the extremely steep scarp slope). The entrance was defended by two stone guard chambers (see excavation reports in the Links section for detail).
Just outside the entrance is square embanked enclosure containing a “barrow”. Accounts of what this may be vary:
James Dyer – “Discovering Prehistoric Archaeology” (Shire 2001) states that it may be the site of a celtic shrine.
L.V. Grinsell – “Gloucestershire Barrows” (Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Arch. Soc. 1960) states: “probably a small round barrow in a roughly square enclosure ... square enclosure may be an 18th century tree-clump enclosure”.
Tim Darvill – “Prehistoric Gloucestershire” (Alan Sutton Publishing 1987) mentions the similarities between the barrow and Iron Age burial structures in Yorkshire and Humberside.
Cheltenham Council – Leckhampton Hill Management Plan states: “This site is part of Scheduled Ancient Monument number 46 and survives as an extremely rare round barrow, a burial mound, within a square enclosure, believed to date from the Iron Age 800BC – 43AD”
From the Carn Brea parish website:
“GREGWARTHA MANOR BARROWS
Private property Originally a group of 4 ranging
from 82ft/25m to 138ft/42m diameter but one
now destroyed.”
Visiting the site it seems too far down the slope of the hill to be a traditional “hillfort” – according to the Cotswold District Council local plan, it is listed as “Hillfort 320m NE of Castle Barn Farm” on the list of Scheduled Ancient Monuments for the district.