02/05. Photo doesn’t really do justice to what is a huge and impressive barrow.
stubob
Eco-Warriors who have camped for five years at a Peak quarry say they are planning to leave now victory is in sight.
The protesters have been campaigning to save the quarries from further workings, because of their proximity to the historic Nine Ladies Stone Circle.
A deal between Stancliffe Stone and the Peak District National Park Authority to indefinitely adjourn a bid to reopen Endcliffe and Lees Cross quarries means the firm will investigate other options for supply.
Now protesters say that as soon as the future of the site is guaranteed they will pack their bags and leave.
Veteran campaigner Malcolm Dixon, 36, said: “Obviously it is good news. We are looking for assurances that Stancliffe Stone won’t quarry here. If we get a positive outcome we will be packing up.”
Robin Nash, 24, who has occupied the site for two years, said: “Initially it sounds like a very positive thing. If we get confirmation it is really great news.”
Last year Matlock company Stancliffe Stone had been told if it wanted to reopen the quarries it would have to meet certain conditions. The company was set to challenge the decision at the Court of Appeal in March.
Now the deal with the national park will delay the court action if work can be found for the firm’s 68-strong workforce.
Chair of the Peak Park Authority Tony Hams said if the court was happy with the deal, it would give both parties breathing space.
He added: “It means we have more time to consider any other options that come up but in no way does it preclude going back to the court or any other options we might be considering for those quarries.”
Stancliffe Stone general manager Mike Jones said: “If the Court of Appeal grants the proposed adjournment we will work closely with the Peak Park and the local community to explore a viable alternative to quarrying at Endcliffe and Lees Cross.”
The campaigners have built tree houses on the 32-acre site and dug a complex of deep tunnels and defences in stone cavities.
If the future of the quarries is guaranteed, they face the prospect of leaving the place they have called home for the past five years.
“We will spend some time taking the site down,” said Mr Nash. “We will leave it as a natural place of beauty as it originally was.
“It is a bit of a shell-shock. But if the news is for real then it is brilliant.”
By Tim Cunningham
matlockmercury.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=749&ArticleID=929874
01/05. Frank I’ Th’ Rocks. The cave of the same name is round the corner of the tor. A Cave entrance can be seen in middle here too.
The barrow came by the name the Lord’s Seat, as it was here that William Peveril, he of Peveril Castle fame, sat and watched the Peak Forest chase.
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.
Finding Rains Cave on the eastern end of Longcliffe Crags is a real task, the small 2ft x 2ft entrance is well hidden behind large boulders. Only clue on the ground as to where it is, is the rubble infill that has been removed from the cave. Still ain’t easy to spot even then. Makes you wonder how it was found in the first place....and who was the first person down there.
Once through the dirty squeeze entrance the low cave chamber slopes downwards for about 35ft. Possible crawl offs from the chamber.
Not the most pleasant cave I’ve been in, but it’s location high on the craggy dolomite outcrop overlooking Rainster Rocks is excellent
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.
A Derbyshire museum has been given £4.26m to expand its facilities.
The money will be spent on building a centre of excellence at Creswell Crags, a limestone gorge which contains the country’s oldest cave art.
The grant has come from the Heritage Lottery Fund and will pay for a new museum and education centre telling the story of the Ice Age.
Plans are now being drawn up, and if approved, work could start next year, with the centre opening in 2007.
Ancient land
The trust which runs the site will have to find £1m towards the project.
The carvings include a 12,000-year-old representation of bison, horse and birds.
They are the only examples of Palaeolithic cave art in the UK, and the artists who made them would have witnessed a British landscape still being shaped by glaciers.
A local road will also be re-routed to protect the site.
From the BBCi-Derbyshire website. A similar article featured on www.24hourmuseum.co.uk
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.
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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”
By David Holmes, Chester Chronicle
Wiltshire may have Stonehenge but now Cheshire has a wooden henge after archaeologists made the discovery near Chester.
Researchers working at Poulton, on the Duke of Westminster’s land, were amazed to find the Bronze Age burials they had been investigating were preceded by a much earlier ‘ritual’ presence.
A circle of holes indicated the existence of the wooden henge together with a large hole in the centre which was potentially a form of ‘totem pole’.
Now Durham University is to undertake both soil analysis and the dating of wood fragments.
Site director Mike Emery said: ‘This will firmly place the burial ground and the timber circle in their proper historical context, as well as providing valuable environmental evidence, which will help to recreate what life was like thousands of years ago.‘
Mr Emery said examples of such circles were more commonly located in the south, and had been interpreted as ritual monuments that were the precursors of more famous monuments, such as Stonehenge.
He added: ‘The uncovering of the site of a timber circle, possibly a ‘henge’ monument, is of great and rare importance in the north-west.‘
Mr Emery said this earliest phase was currently under excavation and a more detailed report would be given in 2005. ‘What can be stated is that the Poulton site was part of a ritual/religious landscape that was established some 5000 years ago,’ he commented.
Archaeologists have discovered evidence of human activity at the site from several periods of human history. And the 2004 excavations have proved to be the most successful to date.
Work on the Bronze Age Burial Ground (1600-1000BC) is now complete. Cremated human bone has been found along with coarse, hand-made pottery and animal bone fragments.
The causeway into the area is aligned to the position of Orion’s Belt in the summer sky. It also aims, unerringly, for a gap in the Cheshire Sandstone Ridge.
It is now evident that the ring-ditch is one of several, others being located close by.
Mr Emery says the importance of the Poulton Bronze Age ‘barrow’ group cannot be underestimated. ‘The existence of such a burial group opens up the unique and exciting prospect of locating a Bronze Age village, nearby,’ he said. ‘Such settlements are rare.‘
Within the medieval graveyard (1153-1600 AD) 63 complete, or partial, skeletons were excavated to the west of the Chapel Tower. One group of burials was particularly poignant. This consisted almost entirely of children, two of whom had their hands clasped together.
Further evidence of the Romans (90-410AD) was unearthed consisting of a mass of pottery and building material.
Mr Emery said test-trenches suggested the remains of a substantial Roman building lies ‘tantalisingly close by’. A planned programme of more extensive geophysical survey will aim to pinpoint the focus of Roman activity.
From the ic Cheshire online website.
Today on large scale O.S maps Steep Low is marked as ‘Tumulus – Site Of’...
However John Barnatt disagreed with this in his Barrow Corpus and noted the mound as a “natural rocky knoll”.
Happens alot in the Peak District....Confusion starts with the word ‘Low’, which usually means high anyway, and can refer to either a conical/rounded hill or a burial mound. It’s pronounced ‘la’ (from Olde English ‘hlaw’ for hill?), by old school Derbyshire folk.
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.
Norfolk’s famous Bronze Age timber circle should finally go on public show in 2007.
A display of part of Seahenge, which in 1999 was controversially dug up from the shoreline at Holme, near Hunstanton, will form the focal point of a major redevelopment of Lynn Museum at King’s Lynn.
The scheme, costing just over £1m, is due to start next summer, with the museum reopening in early 2006.
But it is not expected that conservation of the 55 posts forming the 4000-year-old ring will be completed until mid-2006.
Specialists at the Mary Rose Trust in Portsmouth are carrying out the painstaking process of freeze-drying the wood after it has been impregnated with poly-ethylene glycol – nicknamed “peg”.
This will remove all the water vapour and preserve the sponge-like cell structure of the timbers, which would crumble to dust if left to dry out. The work is being paid for by English Heritage.
“What we are looking to do is reopen the museum building, once the building works have been completed, with temporary displays and we will wait until we’ve got the Seahenge timbers ready before installing the permanent displays,” explained area museums officer Robin Hanley.
“Obviously it’s a very complicated preservation job and it’s ground-breaking in many respects, but it looks like the ring timbers will be coming out of conservation in the middle of 2006.
“We will look at mounting a display at the beginning of 2007 and then it will hopefully be finished by the summer of 2007.
“What we didn’t want to do is keep the museum closed until the timbers are available,” said Dr Hanley.
“We do need a period of time, once the timbers have come out of conservation, to design a display around them. It will require custom-built fittings for all the timbers.
“We want to do the very best we can, which is why at the moment we are looking at a whole range of different approaches to the display.
“When the Seahenge timbers come in they are going to be a key part of telling the West Norfolk story, which is what the permanent displays will do.”
Preserving the large upturned tree stump which was at the centre of the circle is expected to be a much longer undertaking.
“It’s such a massive piece of timber,” said Dr Hanley. “It may take an additional couple of years before the central stump is ready.
“What we are expecting that we will need to do in the short-term is to have a replica of the stump alongside the original ring and replace that with the original one when it comes out of conservation.”
The museum closed at the end of September so preparations for the project, which has a £778,500 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, to begin. It will result in a better entrance, a new study area and extra learning space on a mezzanine floor and removal of the suspended ceiling, revealing the interior of the historic converted chapel building.
Dr Hanley promised that although the finished displays would not be ready for the reopening “there will be lots for people to see and activities”.
Sue Skinner. EDP24 website.
There are several barrows on Stanshope Pasture most of which are impressive in their own right, but their position high above where Hall Dale meets Dove Dale, the Peaks most dramatic limestone gorge, is perhaps more impressive still.
AT SK132 542, is a huge barrow measuring some 41m x 35m in diameter and maybe over 1.5m in height, although it’s position on a narrow ridge makes it appear much larger.
Excavations in 1849 unearthed 3 rock-cut graves, a disturbed cist. These held 5 inhumations, 3 beakers, horse teeth and flint and bronze artefacts.
Built onto a low rocky knoll the most southerly of the barrows is the pick of the bunch. Measuring around 15m in diameter, the barrow is around 2.5m high and pretty complete. Excavated the mound contained inhumations, cremations, a cist and flint and bone artefacts.
The views across the valley to the Nabs and then south down Dove Dale are something else.
Excavation info:
J. Barnatt’s “Barrow Corpus”
B Marsden’s “The Burial Mounds of Derbyshire”
06/04. Cave on the Pike O’Sickle, viewed from across the scree gulley.
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.
Found where the cairn/barrow once stood on Hind Low. A huge quarry replaced the burial mound and err....most of the hill too. (Displayed in the Buxton Museum).
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.........”
11/04. A large Bronze Age burial cairn, between the field systems of Gardom’s Central and Gardom’s NE.
11/04. The cave at Harboro’ Rocks. Daniel DeFoe visited the rocks in the 18th Century and found the cave was inhabited by a lead miner and his family.
11/04. Early Bronze Age hut circle. One of twenty-seven hut circles/building platforms found on the moor. This one was ‘sorted’ after excavation in the 1990’s.
10/03. Cairn built around an orthostat, one of two on the moor. This one is amongst the boulder-scarps close to the fibreglass rock art.
What’s happened here then? Stones all over the shop. Big stones, little stones, upside down in the heather stones…..Looks like the setting could be any one or more of the suggestions given in the fieldnotes below.
It’s a pity about the erosion of the moor around the stones, but it takes little away from what is an interesting place.
It was sorta strange to find out that Elgee described the Low Bridestones as “Perhaps the most remarkable example of prehistoric walling....“. Cos like that was the first thought that struck me about the stones, that it was walling.....
In the Peak District there are quite a few field system walls from the Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age that have the same appearance today as the Low Bridestones (tho’ on a much smaller scale admittedly)....
In the case of the Peak’s ‘walling’ the double row of larger stones and slabs once held a rubble infill....Whether that is the case here, I dunno.
Although the two larger ‘gatepost’ sized stones here in the Bridestones might kinda scupper the that theory......
Corkin’ set of stones whatever they are anyway.....
