stubob

“Proceeding from the circle at Coldrum, towards the east, we observed single stones, of the same kind and of the same colossal magnitude, scattered over the fields for some distance; and it is the tradition of the peasantry that a continuous line of such stones ran from Coldrum direct along the valley to the hill of Kit’s Coty House, a distance of between 5-6 miles”

The author accompanied by Mr Larking then set off to trace the route of the stones “For a large portion of the journey”.

“I was informed that the stones had even be found in the bottom of the river, where there seems to be an ancient ford. It must be remarked that these stones, or boulders, belong to the geological formation of this area, and many of them may have attained their present position by natural causes. But from a tolerably careful examination, we were led to believe that there once existed an avenue of stones connecting the cemetery of Kit’s Coty House to the parish of Addlington – together they seem to have formed a grand necropolis for the Belgian settlers in this part of the island”.

Extracts from “Wanderings of an Antiquary” by Thomas Wright 1777.

Extract from:
‘Spirit of the Stones – Visions of Sacred Britain.’ Alan Richardson 2001.

“When Elizabeth Anderton visited Arbor Low on May 1st, or Beltaine, she started fooling about on the central stones – and immediately regretted it….”

“….Something made me turn and from the north was a dark black wall, and in seconds we were engulfed by darkness a howling wind and a storm of rain and very large hailstones. There was no shelter, I tried to shield behind a larger stone, but it felt like I was being flayed by the hail….”

Have a quick flick to the back of the book….

“…Alan Richardson has brought together a collection of outstanding experiences”

Just the usual run of the mill weather for Arbor Low Alan....Get with the program.

‘Dosmery Pool amid the moores,
On top stands of a hill;
More than a mile about, no streams
It empt, nor any fill‘

Richard Carew 16th Century.

Around 24 x 17m in diameter and getting on for 2m high. This barrow is impressive in its own right...
But all the same it kinda struggles to get noticed with the exposed chambers of the huge Minning Low 30m away to the SE.

Like its neighbour the barrow saw of long period of use and several phases of construction.
Thomas Bateman dug the barrow in 1843 and 1849 and found that it was in fact two burial mounds, a secondary earthen barrow being built against an earlier stone cairn.

Bateman found the cairn’s cist holding the primary burial had already been disturbed. A second cremation was also found.
The large earthen barrow too covered a cremation, as well as Flint knives, bone tools and burnt bronze knife or razor.

Info on finds from:

J.Barnatt’s & J. Collis’ “Barrow Corpus”
B. Marden’s “The Burial Mounds of Derbyshire”

Only down the road from Thomas Bateman’s gaff, so it’s no surprise to find he’s been round it.
His dig of 1848 uncovered 2 disturbed burials, a bone point and several flint tools.

info:
J.Barnatt’s & J. Collis’ “Barrow Corpus”
B. Marsden’s “The Burial Mounds of Derbyshire”

Thomas Bateman arrived at Aleck Low in 1843. His usual ‘partial’ dig of the mound uncovered a crouched burial, a cremation, pottery pieces and some flint artefacts.

info:
J.Barnatt’s & J. Collis’ “Barrow Corpus”
B.Marsden ‘The Burial Mounds of Derbys‘

Both the Batemans excavated here, William in 1825 and then his son Thomas in 1849.
Two crouched burials were recorded, one in a cist the other a rock cut grave. Among the other finds a human cremation and flint artefacts.

info:
J.Barnatt’s & J. Collis’ “Barrow Corpus”
B.Marsden ‘The Burial Mounds of Derbys‘

This barrow has only been partially excavated, the work carried out by an amateur in the 1970’s. Human bones and a complete ‘food vessel’ were discovered, along with pottery pieces from the later Romano-British period.

info:
J.Barnatt’s & J. Collis’ “Barrow Corpus”
B.Marsden ‘The Burial Mounds of Derbys‘

Excavated by Bateman on two occasions, 1843 and 1847. During which he unearthed the primary burial, a crouched skeleton, on the old ground surface in the centre of the barrow. A later burial was also found higher up in the mound, the human remains here contained within a cist.
B. Marsden also partially explored the mound in the early 1970’s; he too found a burial on the old ground surface, as well as pieces of human and animal bones and a number of flint artefacts.

info:
J.Barnatt’s & J. Collis’ “Barrow Corpus”
B.Marsden ‘The Burial Mounds of Derbys‘

Thomas Bateman excavated part of the barrow in 1848, uncovering a pottery urn containing flint artefacts and the remains of a human cremation.

info:
J.Barnatt’s & J. Collis’ “Barrow Corpus”
B Marsden’s “The Burial Mounds of Derbyshire”

This is another Peak cave that has, in its time, been known as Hob Hurst’s House.
‘Fiddling Hob’ was said to occupy the cave, the screeching of his fiddle audible the length of the Manifold Valley.

LS Palmer excavated here in 1925. His discoveries included the remains of 10 individuals, mostly children. Stone tools and pottery shards.
Dated to the Iron Age.

Large barrow measuring 40 x 30m, and 2m high. Even viewed from the lane, which is as about as close as you can get to it, it’s an impressive looking beast.

It’s not yet known for certain as to whether the details that exist for an excavation carried out in 1852, when a  skeleton and bronze dagger were discovered, refers to this barrow or not.

Excavation info:

J.Barnatt’s & J. Collis’ “Barrow Corpus”

Excavated by Bramwell during the 1940/50’s. He discovered a Neolithic burial, pottery (Peterborough Ware) and leaf shaped arrowheads.
The cave also contained later Roman and medieval artefacts.

Excavated on a serious scale by Wilson and Bramwell in the 1930’s – 1950’s, the cave contained 1 human burial, dated to Neolithic/Bronze Age.
Also in the cave were Neolithic and Bronze Age flint tools, and Bronze Age pottery.
Carbon dated charcoal showed the cave had been in use at least as far back as 7000BC.

The cave has been excavated several times. Finds included 2 human burials, dated to the Neolithic/Bronze Age.
Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age pottery, leaf shaped arrowheads, flint and chert artefacts.

Excavated by Ward in the 1890’s and Vallence in 1961; the cave contained evidence for 3 human burials, carried out during the Neolithic/Bronze Age.
Other artefacts included Neolithic Peterborough Ware, Bronze Age pottery and flint tools.

Excavated by Bateman in 1851. Who uncovered a rock cut grave holding a cremation.
Salt also dug the barrow in the 1890’s, the sum of his finds appear to be the small lead tablets left by Bateman to show he’d been there already.

info:
J.Barnatt’s & J. Collis’ “Barrow Corpus”
B Marsden’s “The Burial Mounds of Derbyshire”

Dated to the Bronze Age, the barrow was excavated in the 1870’s by Pennington.
Two limestone cists were discovered, containing a number of flints and a bone pin.
Human and animal bones, more flints and pottery shards were also found within the mound.

info:
J.Barnatt’s & J. Collis’ “Barrow Corpus”
B Marsden’s “The Burial Mounds of Derbyshire”

Wetton Low has seen better times….looks more than a little ruffled now.
Measuring something like 23x17m the battered mound can still reach over 1.5m in places even though a large hole, an old limekiln, has eaten away its centre. Luckily there’s still enough room left to wang a trig point on the top.
The barrow was excavated in the area around the limekiln and 2 cists were found; one contained a cremation, the other a cremation. A rock cut grave was also unearthed containing an inhumation. Flints and pottery shards were also discovered.

info on finds:
J.Barnatt’s & J. Collis’ “Barrow Corpus”
B Marsden’s “The Burial Mounds of Derbyshire”

It’s a coupla fields diversion from the path to the barrow, and while it’s nothing special, the views up to Wetton Hill in the north and the Manifiold Valley to the south more than make up for it.

This barrow is nice enough.....excellent views across the A515 to Gib Hill half a Km away.
Overall the barrow/s measures around 23m in diameter and rises to a height of 1.5m. As Baza’s picture shows there are some visible limestone kerbstones, which form a 17m-diameter platform for the main cairn to stand on.
On the barrows SE and SW sides (?) are 2 smaller mounds, averaging 9m in diameter neither are above 50cm in height.

...................................................................................

Thomas Bateman excavated the part of the main barrow in the late 1840’s. His finds included a crouched skeleton held within a rock cut grave, accompanying the burial were flint tools and shards of a beaker. Flat limestone slabs covered the grave cut, and on these stones he found a second crouched burial, along with a stone axe and bronze dagger.

Excavation info:
J.Barnatt’s & J. Collis’ “Barrow Corpus”

Cross Low was excavated by Thomas Bateman in 1843.
He found a cist which held a crouched skeleton, the remains of two cremated children and a broken stone axe.
Five other burials were found within the mound, as well as burial urns and bone pins.

info:
J. Barnatt’s “Barrow Corpus”
B Marsden’s “The Burial Mounds of Derbyshire”

Measuring c.20m by 18m and possibly 1-2m high.

Thomas Bateman dug this barrow in 1845; unearthing a skeleton, burnt flint artefacts, a bronze dagger and pieces of jet.

info:
J. Barnatt’s “Barrow Corpus”
B Marsden’s “The Burial Mounds of Derbyshire”

The barrow measures 20m-ish in diameter and is quite low. Visible from the Tissington Trail just south of the car park by the Alsop Moor Cottages.

Samuel Carrington from Wetton excavated the cave in the 1860’s. His finds included flint artefacts, a stone adze and bronze brooches. The most interesting of the finds was a Neolithic/Bronze Age skeleton buried in an upright position in the clay of the caves floor.

In the 1920’s, a druid from Onecote named Ralph de Tunstall Sneyd, and some of his followers reinstated the Gorsedd ceremony at Thor’s Cave.

There’s not a lot left of this barrow. A low mound measuring about 10x11m in diameter.

When Bateman excavated here in the 1850’s he discovered a limestone cist divided into 2 compartments. One contained the mixed bones of 12 people as well as burnt wood and bone, animal bones, potsherds and a flint knife/spear head.
The other compartment held the crouched skeleton of a woman, along with flint artefacts.

It’s thought the burial mound dates to the late Neolithic.

info:
J. Barnatt’s “Barrow Corpus”
B Marsden’s “The Burial Mounds of Derbyshire”
T. Bateman’s “10yrs Digging.........”

Thomas Bateman was here in 1848. His excavtions revealed two crouched skeletons. At the barrow’s centre was a stone, underneath it was a bull’s horn and another unidentified bone.
The western burial also contained pot sherds, animal bones and
an iron knife. The knife probably dates to the Anglian period and a re-use of the barrow.

info:
J. Barnatt’s “Barrow Corpus”
B Marsden’s “The Burial Mounds of Derbyshire”

Thomas Bateman partially excavated here in 1845, revealing a
rock-cut grave containing two skeletons, the eastern burial accompanied by burnt bones, the western one by a bronze flat axe and the jaw of a pig.
The barrow is dated to the Bronze Age.

info:
J.Barnatt’s ‘Barrow Copus‘
B.Marsden ‘The Burial Mounds of Derbys‘

creswell-crags.org.uk/virtuallytheiceage/Exploring_objects/Large%20image.asp?VTIA=51

This horse’s head is carved on a bison rib and was the first Creswellian art found in the gorge.
A recent study and reinterpretation of the piece suggests the carved vertical strokes to be corral fencing.
The open ended gorge is thought to have been used as a large natural trap, fences being erected across its span to trap the animals.

Extract from Magic Map’s SMR
“A ring bank of turf-covered limestone rubble, between 4m and 6m wide and up to 1.2m high, with external measurements of 31m by 28m. It encloses a slightly oval internal area measuring approximately 21m by 18m. There is an entrance 5.5m wide on the bank’s north side.
Nineteenth-century quarrying within the ring cairn revealed a cist containing a skeleton together with bones associated with several secondary interments in close proximity”.

Extract from E.H’s Scheduled Monuments Record:

The monument is a stone alignment on Askham Fell situated on a line between White Raise round cairn and Askham Fell ring cairn. It is divided into two separate areas by a natural sink hole. The easterly part includes two virtually parallel alignments of irregularly spaced stones 6m-9m apart, orientated approximately north west – south east, and running for a length of 70m.
There are fifteen stones in the northern line and seven stones in the southern line. Some of the stones remain upright while others appear to have fallen. The maximum height of the stones is 0.3m. At the south east end there is a slight bank up to 0.1m high and 1m wide that continues the southernmost alignment of the stones for a further 8m. The western part of the monument
continues approximately on the same alignment as the northern line of stones for a further 44m and includes seven irregularly spaced stones up to 0.45m high.

Info on Long Megs’ Enclosure and Cursus.

Extracts from the SMR.....

Immediately to the north of the stone circle, and partly overlain by Longmeg Farm, aerial photographs have identified the infilled ditch of a roughly circular enclosure measuring some 210m north-south by 200m east-west. At the point where the stone circle and the enclosure virtually touch, the stone circle has been flattened slightly in shape suggesting that the enclosure was already in existence and the stones arranged so as not to disturb this earlier
feature.

To the west of the stone circle aerial photographs have identified two infilled ditches of a cursus running for approximately 600m from the cliff above the River Eden to the entrance on the south western side of the stone circle. The ditches are virtually parallel and c.40m-50m apart. The western end of the cursus is terminated by an oblique ditch also visible on aerial photographs. The eastern end is less clear; the northern ditch appears to run to the edge of the stone circle, the southern ditch, however, cannot be traced quite this far on existing aerial photographs but it is reasonable to assume that it also continues at least to the stone circle.

In Stan Beckensall’s book ‘Prehistoric Rock Art In Cumbria” there’s a fancy infra-red aerial photo of Long Meg...the enclosure is easy to see......at the top of the photo is a dark stripe...is this the Cursus perhaps?

Access to Minninglow has always been a bit of a shady area....

The information board at Minninglow car park reckons there is no public access up to the cairns. And there are no paths up there.

But....the surrounding fields are all open pasture... So as long as you’re polite and tell the farmer at Minninglow Grange what you’re up to...

Partial excavations carried out in 1958 and 1959 showed the cave to have been in use in the Mesolithic, Neolithic, Beaker, Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman periods, and demonstrated in particular that the site was a Neolithic burial-cave. Beneath these deposits was found Later Upper Palaeolithic material, which included flint tools, charcoal denoting a hearth, fragments of antler, and pieces of bone showing marks of
cutting and crushing. The recently radiocarbon dated tang of an antler point indicates the cave was in use circa 11200BP (Before Present).

Extract from the SMR...

The roundhouse was sadly burnt down on November the 5th after a stray firework/spark landed in the houses roof.

If I can add something to festboy’s misc. notes below.....
Although once thought of as a hillfort, Burr Tor is now thought of as a stock enclosure. One of the reasons behind the rethinking is that in the 1780’s some geezer named Cresswell described the earthworks as “neither broad nor deep.”

Jewitt and Lucas excavated/dug the cairn in the 1840’s and discovered 4 rock cut graves and 4 cists....Two of these contained burials along with food vessels, flints and an axe hammer. (Finds J.Barnatt’s & J. Collis’ “Barrow Corpus”)

Today, Glutton Bridge below Hitter Hill is also the best place to pick up the ‘double sunset’ behind Chrome Hill. This happens a few weeks either side of 21st June.

Three carved rocks were found by the JCB, the 3rd is a worn cup with an incomplete ring (10cm diameter). Close to this is another cup surrounded by a not quite circular ‘ring’.
The carving is damaged and worn, and if it is still in the garden behind the school it’s a tricky one to find.

The Peak District is named not after the hills but after the tribe “Pecsaetans” who lived in the area, the name roughly means ‘Hill dwellers’.

This is the largest of the four cat stones that lie along the Eastern edge of the moor, so it kinda carries the ‘Cat Stone’ label.
Cat is derived from Cath, meaning battle. All four stones carry dates and some have coronets.
Along with the Cat Stone pictured, inscribed ‘E.I.N 1831’, the other easy stone to spot is the Duke of York stone, a hundred yards or so NE of Stanton Moor North.

In the first edition of the one-inch O.S Maps for Sheffield and Chesterfield. The Glory Stones SK213853 are marked as ‘Rocking Stones’.

From ‘The Beauties of England and Wales’ – J.Britton and E.W.Brayley, 1802:

On the eminence above the church, called Riber Hill, are the remains of what has been supposed a Druidical altar, but which has more resemblance to a cromlech; although it may only have been intended for a point to transmit signals.It is called the Hirst Stones, and consists of four rude masses of gritstone, on which apparently the smallest is placed on the others, and is computed to weigh about 2 tons. on the upper stone is a circular hole, wherein 50yrs ago stood a stone pillar

“Blacks Guide To Derbyshire 1881” mentions a stone in the centre of the circle, it wasn’t there at the time the guide was written, and Barnatt seems to think it may not have been there at all. The book also mentions the sizes of the barrows on the moor. The Eyam Moor Barrow was approx. 90ft in diameter and 35ft high. And one at Hayley’s Piece being 66ft wide and 36ft high.

There doesn’t seem to be many references to these rocking stones I first came across it on a geological map of Matlock;
In Bulmers ‘History of Derbyshire’ from 1895 he mentions the two stones..
“As being some way connected with Druidical worship”.

Also the ‘Gentlemans Library’. In their Derbyshire guide under ’ Ancient State and Remains” the stones are one of the few sites mentioned. Along with Arbor Low and the infamous Hirst Stones at Riber.

In the book ’ Timpsons Leylines- a layman tracking the leys’, he mentions the Arbor Low line, but doesn’t manage to find the Wishing Stone.....

“That’ll be the transit van sized boulder at the end of the road called WishingStone Way”.

The only archaeological reference to Strawberry Lea I’ve come across is that, in 1824 Mitchell dug “a remarkably conspicous and well shaped tumulus”. He made no finds.

The stones at Strawberry Lea are thought to the remains of this tumulus as there is nothing now visible in the area.

During excavations on the henges, they found a white layer of gypsum covering the banks, it is thought to have come from deposits in the River Ure.

1970’s Sheffield City Museum Book.

This iron age fort is about 2miles from Sheffield city centre. It’s counterscarp bank encloses approx. 2 acres. The entrance is in the NE.

E.Howarth excavated here at the end of the 1800’s, he found the 17ft stone rampart had been burnt and had vitrified in places.

The farmer at Tregune Farm says he put the stone up himself in the last 20yrs. He calls it the ‘Bull Stone’ cause it’s a good place to hide if you’re being chased by one.
There are hut circles nearby and a medieval settlement.

Dr. Bolase noted in the late 1700’s that there were the remains of two circles here, a NW and SE circle. There are 6 stones remaining out of possibly 14/15 in the SE circle, 2 of these are built into a field wall. Two stones remain from the NE circle also built into a wall.

There are 2 more stones near to the Carfury menhir. A 5m recumbent stone lies in the same boundary wall close to the menhir, first noted in the 1980’s by J.Barnatt.
And an upright 3"6’ stone at SW437341