Rhiannon

The destruction of.. Borough Walls, overhanging Nightingale Valley, revealed the construction of the walls. It had a triple rampart formed of loose stones, the principal rampart being run together with lime, so as to have a solid mass of concrete in the centre.

This had been produced by mixing the lime-stones with brushwood, which was set on fire, and then when heated, water was poured in, or the smouldering mass left open to the rain, and then fragments of stone cast in, so as to form by degrees a solid mass of concrete, which could not be dug through.

The whole was then banked up with earth and stones, and probably a palisade planted on the summit. All this has now been cleared away and we cannot but regret the loss of so interesting a structure. Hardly any trace of it remains.

From the Proceedings of the Bath Field Club, vol 5, p 4 (1885).

Wilcrick Hill is raised up above the surrounding soggy land of the Gwent Levels (and no doubt readily visible from the nearby M4). An article in ‘British Archaeology’ suggests that it was where cattle farmers who used the Levels in summer would retreat to for the winter months, when water levels rose. Three of their houses were found preserved in the peat at Barnard’s Farm, along with the hoof-prints of their cattle!
see
britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba49/ba49news.html

Llanmelin fort is run by CADW, so you can visit it (as long as you leave your dog at home). It was excavated in the 1930s, when finds confirmed its Iron Age roots, though it had been used later in medieval times. It may have been the capital of the Silures, before the wretched Romans whupped their behinds and built Caerwent to keep an eye on them, just to the south. The top of the fort has been cleared of trees, as you can see in this photo at ‘Gathering the Jewels’:
tlysau.org.uk/en/item1/1248
There is also a little outlying defended area to the north-east, by the road at ST 463928.

Castell Prin lurks on the steep rocky hillside inside its wood. The Coflein record describes it as defended enclosure with a bank and ditches, probably from the Iron Age. I think the name means means something along the lines of ‘empty/deserted fort’. There is the stone base of a structure 4x3m: perhaps the site was reused over time. A footpath does run to the south of the fort, from one side of the hill to the other.

How many forts does one small area need? You have this site and Stokeleigh Camp on one side of the Avon Gorge, and Clifton Camp on the other. Burgh Walls has been transformed into Burwalls, a large house with gardens now owned by Bristol University. There are traces of the earthworks left: if you contacted the university they might let you look (they occasionally do tours).

The fort is mentioned in the Bath Field Club proceedings for 1877:

What shall we say of a building company which has lately consigned to utter destruction one of the most important and interesting historical monuments of this neighbourhood? I mean the camp on the Somerset side of the River Avon, called Bowre Walls, and opposite the camp on Clifton Down. This has been almost obliterated for the sake of the material of which the ramparts of the camp were composed, and which has been used in making roads! How much better to have preserved these ramparts entire, and have made them a part of the ornamental garden attached to the new villas erected on the heights over the Avon, and so associated the marks of ancient warfare with the elegancies of modern civilisation.

Surely it is necessary that some power should be given to prevent the monuments of past ages being wantonly destroyed, and we must be thankful that the subject has lately been brought under the consideration of Parliament.

This hillfort at Cheddington was only rediscovered in 1973 from aerial photos, as its ramparts had been ploughed for so long. It’s intervisible with Ivinghoe Beacon just a few miles to the east and could well have been occupied at the same time (people started living here in the Early to Middle Iron age*). From the bottom photo in the link below it seems that the hill continues to be an obvious spot in the landscape – visible from the road and railway (and most likely the canal too).
cheddington.web-labs.co.uk/thevillage/photos/scenes/?textonly=on

Cheddington was called ‘Cetendone’ in the Domesday survey, which apparently means ‘Cetta’s Hill’.

*from the scheduled monuments record via Magic.

A letter from the Reverend Stephens in the November 15th 1935 edition of The Times describes a striking experience on the hill.

There was thick mist from about 500ft, but being perfectly familiar with the route, and enjoying the weird isolation and unfamiliarity of the cloud-cap, I climbed to the highest point, which is marked by a large and ancient tumulus. Standing there, on what is thought to be the last resting-place of a British chieftain, I found I was actually above the mist, and in sunshine. Only the small circle of the ground forming the tumulus was visible and this gave me the sensation of standing on a colossal circular tower rising out of the seas of mist. As I gazed down on the moving surface of the sea, on the side away from the sun I was amazed to find the ‘spectre,’ a small rainbow-encircled shadow of myself which rose and fell, grew and diminished, with the movement of the mist, and which uncannily mocked all my movements. The spectrum colours were vivid and the experience unforgettable.

I suppose this must be the Carn Boscawen referred to by Hunt in ‘Popular Romances of the West of England’?

Dr Borlase has been laughed at for finding rock-basins, the works of the Druids, in every granitic mass. At the same time, those who laugh have failed to examine those rock-masses with unprejudiced care, and hence they have erred as wildly as did the Cornish antiquary, but in a contrary direction. Hundreds of depressions are being formed by the winds and rains upon the faces of the granite rocks. With these no Druid ever perplexed himself or his people. But there are numerous hollows to be found in large flat rocks which have unmistakably been formed, if not entirely, partly by the hands of man. The Sacrificing Rock, or Carn Brea, is a remarkable example. The larger hollows on the Men-rock, in Constantine, several basins in the Logan Rock group, and at Carn Boscawen, may be referred to as other examples.

Online at
sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/prwe/prwe065.htm
courtesy of the excellent ‘sacred texts’ website.

This iron-age promontory fort has a substantial bank and ditch on the side away from the sea, but there’s also a strange rounded ‘annex’ on the far side of the bank. Hut circles have been found in both areas.

(info from Coflein)

Although only ‘tumulus’ is marked on the 1:25000 map, there are actually the remains of three barrows here next to the Cripsey Brook.

Harlow Temple is admittedly a Roman site. But there’s good reason to believe that it was built on top of an Iron Age shrine.

“In the Iron Age Harlow lay on the tribal boundary between the Catuvellauni in Hertfordshire and the Trinovantes in Essex. At the temple hill there were two roundhouses of mid to late Iron Age date and numerous Iron Age coins, small finds and animal bones. The quantity and pattern of distribution of the coins, coupled with what appears to have been deliberate damage to the small finds suggests that the site had a religious rather than domestic function.”
see:
unlockingessex.essexcc.gov.uk/content_page.asp?content_page_id=120&content_parents=48,94

Beneath the Iron Age remains excavators found Bronze Age pits, some of which had fragments of burial urns. The EH book ‘Shrines and Sacrifice’ (Ann Woodward, 1992) also mentions Neolithic / early Bronze age flints which were also found, and suggests these lay on the original land surface under a purported destroyed barrow. Whatever, they do suggest a continuity of use of the site over a very long period (even if the flints do not relate to the later burials).

There are three round barrows close to the hospital in Harlow – I wonder how recognisable they’ll be to a keen eye. I’m intrigued by the subspecies of the urban barrow. I wonder if they’ll be camouflaged, abused or carefully mown...

There’s one 110m NE of the hospital at TL442101 (said to be 25m diameter, 2m high); another is 140m N of the hospital at TL440103 (14m d, 1m h); the third is 230m N, at TL440104 (20m d, 1.3m high).

The scheduled monument record (on Magic) describes the Wroth Stone as the remains of a medieval boundary cross base. The mound is described as medieval too, but “It has been suggested that the mound may have originated prior to the construction of the cross, perhaps as a burial tumulus which was later adapted as a base for the cross.” As the medieval English were not generally in the habit of building barrows, is this a half-admission of a prehistoric origin?

About two years ago the tenant was engaged in levelling and improving a field on the eastern extremity of Craigengelt in which there was a large cairn or mound, known in the country by the name of the “Ghost’s Knowe.” It was quite circular, exactly 300 feet in circumference at the base, and which was flanked around by twelve very large stones, placed at equal distances, and it was 12 feet high, with a slight inclination to one side, and fiat on top. On removing the turf and soil, it was found that the interior consisted of large and small stories built together with great care, which led the proprietor to think that it must have been a place of Druidical sepulture.

About 6 feet from the centre, there stood four upright stones, each about 3 feet in height, describing an oblong figure like a bed. Within this a coffin was found, the length of which was about 7 feet, at broad, and at deep. The under part or bottom of the coffin was whin-flag, as was also the upper part or lid. Within this were found the remains of a human body of the ordinary size. The hones, except a very small part of the skull, were of the consistence of soft chalk,-the body had been enveloped in something like a mixture of decayed vegetable matter and tar, which, when exposed to the atmosphere, emitted a strong odour.

Strict orders were given to the labourers that if anything like a coffin should be found, they were not to open it until either the proprietor or tenant were present. But one of them, an old schoolmaster, who knew something of antiquities, went during the night, and carried off a variety of articles, the nature and number of which are not now likely ever to be ascertained. With reluctance, he gave up a stone axe of beautiful workmanship and a gold ring. The ring had had a jewel in it; but the jewel was out, and it was what is called “chased,” and must have been worn on a very small finger. A labourer in the neighbourhood sold a variety of things of a rare description to a gentleman in whose possession, it is believed, they still are. The axe and the ring were the only things obtained by the proprietor, J. Dick, Esq. of Craigengelt, and they are still in his possession.

From the Statistical Account of Stirlingshire (1841), online at Tom Paterson’s webpages.
web.ukonline.co.uk/tom.paterson/places/sastninians.htm

The RCAHMS record says “The divergence between the stone relics and the gold ones suggests that whereas the cairn originally contained a battle-axe burial, a secondary deposit, probably of Roman or medieval date, had been made in it.”

From ‘Rude Stone Monuments in all Countries – their age and uses’ by James Fergusson, 1872.

“All are agreed that the principle monument was an alignment, according to some a double row of stones, of which others can only trace a single row... commencing at the Thunder Stone in the North where there are seven large stones ina field; six are arranged as a double row... According to popular tradition the stone avenue originally extended to Muir Divock, a distance of rather more than five miles, to which it certainly points. Though this is most improbable, it is not wholly without reason, as on Muir Divock there are five or six circles of stone and several tumuli..”

He whinges repeatedly about the weather – I think he must have had a bad experience. He mentions Stukely complaining about the weather and agrees that “rain on a bleak exposed moor like Shap is singularly inimical to antiquarian pursuits.” Later he says “.. a bleaker and more ungenial spot is not inhabited in any part of these islands.” I’ll spare you the rest.

Chudleigh Rocks contains a number of caves. The Pixie’s Hole is a very rare example of an Upper Palaeolithic `living floor’ in a British cave. It is one of three caves in the valley known
to contain significant Palaeolithic deposits – the others are called Cow Cave and Tramp’s Shelter. The Magic map has records for all three.

The barrow was first visited by Sir Richard Colt Hoare in 1801, then again in 1816 accompanied by the Rev. John Skinner. The last named antiquary began its examination by making an opening through the roof into the central avenue, which was, we are told, cleared of rubbish, no doubt partly caused by this difficult and hazardous undertaking..

RCH wrote a paper (published in Archaeologia) and during its reading exhibited two skulls he had found in the barrow. He stated the entrance had been closed by a large stone which “was removed in my presence and the original entrance restored” (presumably he noticed this from the inside, or it would have been the logical route of entry, rather than through the roof). He mentioned that some years previously the tumulus “had been resorted to as a stone quarry by a farmer” but fortunately the owner had stopped this and repaired the gap.

The large entrance stone has unfortunately disappeared. “Our investigations proved that the interments had been disturbed and their deposits (ie funereal furnishings) probably removed; for in the long avenue we met with many fragments of bones, etc., which had been displaced from the sepulchral recesses, many of which had been filled up with stones and other rubbish.” We would like to know now what became of the etceteras and rubbish.

Hoare’s paper being quoted here by Arthur Bulleid in ‘Notes on some chambered long barrows of North Somerset’ (Som Arch Nat Hist Soc Proc 1941 v87 p56-71).

Up to 1787 it was as far as is known quite complete, but in that year it fell on evil days and was doomed to deplorable and wanton ruination and unpardonable obliteration..

..The entrance stone had a hole through its centre and blocked the opening to the avenue where the unmortared walls terminated..

.. When visiting the site some years ago the writer was informed by a man that tradition says all the bones from the barrow were buried in a hole on the North side of the field, and it is quite possible that this was done on Bere’s advice and in order to save them*.

*The Reverend T Bere ‘discovered’ the barrow and recognised its importance, writing letters of his findings to the Gentleman’s Magazine and the Bath Chronicle in the latter part of the 18th century. He was the Rector of Butcombe (his church is only a stone’s throw away). The choice of the word ‘save’ is quite ambiguous – was he trying to save them from being thrown away / taken as souvenirs and so on – or trying to ‘Save’ them by giving them a burial (albeit not a Christian one). Ok it’s probably the former. But why not stick them in a box?

It is the Rev Bere’s drawing that has been posted by JD525 above.

Text from ‘Notes on some chambered long barrows of North Somerset.’ Arthur Bulleid.
Som. Arch. Nat. Hist. Soc. Proc. 1941 v87 p56-71.

The famous Druidical Monument, called Arthur’s Stone, mentioned by Camden, is in this Parish, and is situate on the North side of Cefn y Brynn: it is supported by six rough Pillars; there are four other Pillars standing alone, which supported a part of the Stone, now broken off, by what means, unknown, though it is said that it was broken off for the purpose of making Mill-stones, but was afterwards found unfit for the intention: several smaller pieces have from time to time been broken off, chiefly through mere wickedness, so that it is much decreased in size; it is supposed to weigh now about Twenty Tons, and to have been brought from a distance, as it is of a different quality to the Stone found upon the Hill: underneath it is a Spring of water, seldom dry. A great quantity of loose stones, thrown there by the Country people, served to hide some part of the Pillars, but were cleared away at the expense of Mr. Lucas.

From ‘A Topographical Dictionary of The Dominion of Wales’ by Nicholas Carlisle (1811) – a section on the Genuki pages at genuki.org.uk/big/wal/GLA/Reynoldston/Lewis1833.html

On the summit of Cevn Bryn is a large cromlech, called Arthur’s Stone, a vestige of Druidical antiquity, which Camden and other writers describe as being composed of a different species of stone from any found in this part of the country : this, however, appears to be erroneous, as it is the common pudding-stone, or millstone grit, of the country; and, within the recollection of persons still living, a huge fragment, which had been broken off with great labour, by means of wedges, and intended for a millstone, was found totally unfit for that purpose, from the cavities left in the surface by the falling out of the pebbles of which it consisted. The principal, or covering stone, is eleven feet in length and six feet and a half in its greatest breadth : it rests on twelve supporters, for fixing which the earth appears to have been excavated, and by the side of the cromlech lies the mass above noticed. A supposed miraculous well beneath this monument, which was said to ebb and flow with the sea, appears to be nothing more than a collection of water, after heavy rains, in the cavity formed for the insertion of the supporters, which fluctuates according to the weather, and which, as attested by intelligent persons residing near the spot, is frequently dry in hot summers. This cromlech is supposed to be alluded to in the historical triads of Wales, as one of the three Herculean labours. There are several mineral springs in the parish, to which medicinal properties are ascribed : of these, the most celebrated is Holy Well, on Cevn y Bryn mountain, to which, in former times, miraculous efficacy was attributed : it was generally frequented on Sunday evenings during the summer season by numbers of persons, who drank the water, and, according to an ancient custom, threw in a pin as a tribute of their gratitude.

genuki.org.uk/big/wal/GLA/Llanrhidian/Lewis1833.html

From Camden’s ‘Britannia’ (1695):

“At a little distance upon the very descent of Chiltern Hills, there is a round military fortification.. called Madning-bowre and Madin-boure... The swineherds now and then in the neighbouring fields find coins of the emperors, which they call to this day Madning money.”

(Quoted in the Victoria County History for Bedfordshire, v1 (1904)).

There used to be a round barrow on the other side of the Icknield Way to the Five Knolls, about a third of a mile to the south east. There is a fantastic picture of what its excavators found, on p 168 of the Victoria County History for Bedfordshire (v1). It shows the skeleton of a small child being clasped by that of (presumably) its mother. “Near the head of the woman were two broken pots, near the right hand a stone muller and a white pebble; elsewhere in the grave were two other mullers, two scrapers and two very rudely chipped celts [axeheads].” But far more fantastic than this, about 200 fossil Echini (sea urchins) can be seen encircling the skeletons. Folklore has called such fossils ‘fairy loaves’ – could they have been seen similarly in the Bronze age – as helpful offerings of food for the next world, or perhaps they were added for another symbolic reason – or even because they were just really cool objects collected by one or other of the dead occupants?

Ever wondered what people did at Avebury before the invention of the dustman?

Thirteen men were employed last April in the reexcavation of the great fosse at Avebury.. on the east side of the Kennet Causeway... This immense fosse had been partly reexcavated in 1914, when owing to danger to children and animals, it had to be fenced in, and it was only during the spring that this work could be completed.

During this time .. a large amount of talus had formed. It was intended to measure this [to determine] what rate these chalk ditches silted up from natural causes; but.. during the interval of eight years the villagers found the ‘hole’ an attractive dump for their broken crockery, worn-out domestic utensils and rubbish. It took the greater part of the first week to remove the rubbish and the eight years’ accumulation of silting.

You’d imagine it was ever thus? From a report in The Times 14 August 1922, quoted in Proc Bris Glouc Arch Soc Trans 44 (1922).

The large barrow above the plantation produced a skeleton, and a cup of rude form. On this spot were erected double gallows for the execution of George Ruddock aged 20, and George Carpenter, 21, for the murder of Mr Webb, a farmer, and his maidservant at Roddenbury, near Longleat. They were hanged on December 28 1813 in the presence of the Yeomanry, the Chairman of Quarter Sessions, the Vicar of Warminster, and a vast multitude of spectators.

The History of Warminster, J J Daniell (1879). p95.

“Swallow Head” is the name of a very copious spring which rises at a short distance to the south of Silbury, and is very frequently though erroneously called the source of the Kennet; for this mistake Stukeley is responsible, since he wrote:

“There are two heads of the river Kennet: one from a little north-west of Abury, at Monkton, runs southward to Silbury Hill: this affords little water, except in wet seasons. At Silbury Hill it joins the Swallow Head, or true fountain of the Kennet, which the country people call by the old name Cunnit, and it is not a little famous among them. This is a plentiful spring.”

...The actual sources are indeed two.. one which rises in Clyffe Pypard field, some four miles to the north-west, and the other in the parish of Broad Hinton, some four miles to the north east of Abury: at the latter village these two streams unite, and flow in one channel to Swallow Head, the very picturesque basin whose springs are generally very abundant, and largely increase the infant river: indeed there are seasons when the two real sources have been known to be dry, and the only water in the Kennet has come from this spring.

Other seasons have occurred within my memory when this, too, has failed, and the dry bed of the Kennet has been planted with potatoes.

I should add that Canon Jones attributes the name ‘Swallow Head’ to the same source as the Swill in N Wilts and the Swale in Kent and Yorkshire, and quotes Fergusson for the origin of the word from the old German swal, meaning ‘swell’ or ‘whirlpool’. If this is accepted, I can bear witness that the large round pool at Swallow Head oftentimes show considerable commotion of water from the very copious springs which bubble up to the surface.

p175 in Rev. A C Smith’s ‘Guide to the British and Roman Antiquities of the North Wiltshire Downs’ (1884).

On the brow of the hill is a group of five circular barrows, and one oblong, three of which Mr Cunnington had opened. The first produced a rude urn and two pins of bone perforated. The second, a cist, and one bone pin, but no urn. The third, a well-shaped bell barrow, contained two interments towards the top, which had been preserved by some very large flints. At the depth of three feet was an urn, which in taking out was unfortunately broken to pieces. Within this sepulchral urn was a badly-baked black cup, curiously ornamented, but an unlucky stroke of the labourer’s spade cut it in two: there was also a small pin of brass, and another of bone.

That was some unlucky stroke, if the cup was in the urn. You just can’t get the servants these days. Rev. A C Smith quotes Sir R Hoare, on p211 of ‘Guide to the British and Roman Antiquities of the North Wiltshire Downs’ (1884).

Dean Mereweather says that it lies “about three quarters of a mile south-east of the Long barrow at West Kennet, and is of much the same character as to shape and dimensions, but differs in construction. I was induced to visit this in consequence of having been informed by the occupier of the surrounding land that he had caused a hole to be dug at the east end for the purpose of obtaining flint; but that he soon found that it was made up of round and generally flat sarsen stones, which came tumbling so about the men that they gave up the work. It has unfortunately been planted over, as have many of the larger barrows on Hacpen Hill; I think it in bad taste.”

Rev A C Smith quotes Dean Mereweather from ‘Proc Arch Inst. Salisbury volume’, in his 1884 ‘Guide to the British and Roman Antiquities of the North Wiltshire Downs’.

On the brow of the down, overlooking the vale, stands one solitary barrow, just within the precincts of the park at Compton Bassett: it is of moderate dimensions, bowl-shaped, and appears never to have been opened: it is planted with trees, and the wood in which it stands is in consequence marked in the Ordnance Map ‘Mount Wood’.

I take this early opportunity of expressing my regret that so many of the fine barrows on our downs are covered with trees, to their great disfigurement, nay, to their absolute concealment: for the barrow is soon lost to sight under the plantation which overwhelms it. This is the more to be regretted, because there is no object gained by thus mutilating the mounds, destroying their symmetry and hiding the elegance of their proportions: for, once encumbered with trees, they soon become mere unsightly excrescences, unmeaning heaps to raise the burden they support in a most unnatural way above the surrounding level; and while the injury to themselves is fatal, there is no compensating advantage of benefit derived by the plantation.

p44 in Rev. A C Smith’s ‘Guide to the British and Roman Antiquities of the North Wiltshire Downs’ (1884).

King Barrow is a very large tumulus, 200ft long and 15 wide, about 200 yards north of the village of Boreham, which on being thrown open by a section to the centre, and then to right and left, in 1800, yielded only intermingled pieces of bones of birds and beasts, boars’ tusks, stags’ horns, charred wood, fragments of the coarsest pottery, and the skeleton of a horse. A second excavation disclosed three human skeletons, on the thigh of one of which was an iron sword, with the blade 18” long, 2 wide and single edged: lying near was a part of a rude urn, but prettily ornamented. These remains being supposed to be but a subsequent deposit, at great expense and toil, a third cutting was made at a deeper level, and black ashes, burnt wood and bones, and bits of earthenware were exposed, but the primary interments remained undiscovered.

If you get an undercurrent of unimpressedness at the repeated excavations, you’d probably be right: see what John Daniell wrote about Cop Heap.

From ‘The History of Warminster’ by John J Daniell (1879).

1663. King Charles IId discoursing one morning with my Lord Brounker and Dr. Charleton concerning Stoneheng, they told his Majestie, what they had heard me say concerning Aubury, sc. that it did as much excell Stoneheng as a Cathedral does a Parish Church. His Majestie admired that none of our Chorographers had taken notice of it: and commanded Dr. Charlton to bring me to him the next morning.

I brought with me a draught of it donne by memorie only: but well enough resembling it, with which his Majestie was pleased: gave me his hand to kisse, and commanded me to waite on him at Marleborough when he went to Bath with the Queen about a fortnight after, which I did: and the next day, when the court were on their journey, his Majestie left the Queen and diverted to Aubury, where I showed him that stupendous Antiquity, with the view whereof He and his Royal Highness the Duke of Yorke were very well pleased.

His Majestie then commanded me to write a Description of it, and present it to him, and the Duke of Yorke commanded me to give an account of the old Camps and Barrows on the Plaines. As his Majestie departed from Aubury to overtake the Queen he cast his eie on Silbury-hill about a mile off: which he had the curiosity to see, and walkt up to the top of it, with the Duke of Yorke; Dr. Charlton and I attending them...

Quoted in ‘Wiltshire: the topographical collections of John Aubrey,’ JE Jackson 1862. This also has Aubrey’s plans of the circle, and a discussion of these by Jackson.

In BURYWOOD is a Camp, double workes; ergo not Roman but British: very large and the graffes are very deepe, notwithstanding the rocke. It has an aperture, West, towards Colerne downe. It stands on a kind of Promontory, and every other side is well secured by the precipice. A prettie cleare little streame runs on the rock, and gravell in each bottome.

A quote from Aubrey’s notes, collated in ‘Wiltshire: the topographical collections of John Aubrey’, J E Jackson, 1862.

This fort seems to have a good defensive position, at the top of a slope one side, and at the edge of a cliff on the other (popular with climbers??). The semicircular stone banks probably originate from the iron age and there are the remains of hut circle(s) inside – but use of the location obviously goes back further, as according to ‘Keys to the Past’ a neolithic axe was found here in the 1920s.

keystothepast.info/durhamcc/K2P.nsf/K2PDetail?readform&PRN=N3743

I found this curious paragraph about Rodmarton barrow in ‘The Long Barrows of the Cotswolds’ by Glyn Daniel (Trans Brist Glouc Arch Soc 82, p14 (1963):

We have, at least so far, never found any geometrical art in the Cotswolds. There are no spirals or lozenges, but Mrs Clifford has often drawn attention to one stone at Rodmarton which, viewed in certain lights, could be thought to display the stylized features of the goddess so well represented in unmistakeable form on tombs in France and objects buried with the dead in collective tombs in Iberia.

I must say honestly that I am not convinced by this representation at Rodmarton, but I also say honestly that the art at Stonehenge was found and attested only a few years ago, whereas that great and remarkable monument had been visited and regarded carefully by the public and by antiquaries and archaeologists for hundreds of years.

It makes you wonder what the ‘unmistakeable form’ alludes to (or is that just me). Mrs Clifford was the woman he excavated Rodmarton with, so you imagine she was quite a sober sort and not given to imagining goddesses all over the place? Daniel does let his serious face slip a bit when he says of Rodmarton: “I shall myself never forget the excitement when we found the blocked porthole.”

The earthworks on Freezing Hill are quite visible from afar – they seem to defend the steep south west slope of the flattish topped hill. The ‘Magic’ record is not yet online, so doesn’t come up with any details to confirm a prehistoric date, but there is a barrow (at least on the map) above the north western slope.

According to Mark Richards’ “The Cotswold Way” (1984) the earthwork is called ‘eald dic’ in a Saxon charter (so one assumes it is pre-Saxon if they thought it was old). He suggests ‘freezing hill’ comes from ‘Frisian’s Hill’ – Frisa being a OE nickname. Moss speculates it may come from ‘Frey(a)’:
https://www.themodernantiquarian.com/post/31851

Isaac Taylor raised its status on his 1777 map of Gloucestershire, on which he labelled it ‘Royal Camp’.

George Witts (c1882) gives ‘Furzen Hill’ as an alternative name (which is quite a boring explanation) but could be based on local pronunciation of freezing? And I’m sure it is freezing up there at the moment.

A prehistoric sandstone axe was found here at some time, as you can read at
https://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/search/fr.cfm?rcn=SGLOSSMR-SG2428&CFID=392636&CFTOKEN=45832204

This neolithic cursus is very close to a bronze age barrow. It’s only visible as a crop mark now – the long ditches on either side show up. It’s situated on level high ground that overlooks the River Stort valley to the north.

One imagines the cursus was still noticeable when the barrow was constructed? Or perhaps not? Perhaps the close siting is just due to a continuation of the use of the land... (and Harlow could be named after the round barrow itself, a hlaew). It’s interesting anyway. The public footpath crosses the eastern end of the cursus, should you try to work out where it is.

(info from the record via MaGIc)

More information from ‘A history of the parishes of Minchinhampton and Avening’ by Arthur Twisden Playne (1915).

“There is on Minchinhampton Common an old British tumulus, which has been so maltreated that it is difficult to trace its original shape, but it has in recent times a remarkable history, for here the celebrated divine George Whitefiled preached to enormous congregations, and from this circumstance it has been known as ‘Whitefield’s Tump’.”

He also mentions that Whitefield was a frequent visitor to Minchinhampton. He was born in Gloucester in 1714. In March 1743 he wrote in his diary “Then I rode to Stroud and preached to about 12,000 people in Mrs G’s field, and about six in the evening to a like number on Hampton Common... After this went to Hampton and held a general love feast and went to bed about midnight very cheerful and happy.”

There is a very remarkable tumulus a few 100 yards south of the Long Stone, which on being opened in the year 1870 was found to contain a sepulchral chamber 8 feet long, 4 feet wide, and 5 feet 6 inches high, with an entrance porch 3 feet square and covered by a massive stone 9 feet 6 inches long and 5 feet 6 inches wide. In this sepulchral chamber was found a skeleton in a sitting position at the furthest end.

From ‘A history of the parishes of Minchinhampton and Avening’ by Arthur Twisden Playne (1915).

Cuff Hill was hacked into for road material in the early 19th century. Burl quotes a local farmer who indignantly observed “These curious and interesting relics of antiquity, the mercenary and boorish labourers are breaking and undoing with the most unfeeling apathy.”

(in ‘Rites of the Gods’ 1981 – no particular source mentioned?)

Apparently Lligwy is actually built over a natural fissure in the limestone, rather than being dug out. Aubrey Burl (in ‘Rites of the Gods’) lists the layers (from top to bottom) that were excavated inside:
> red clay and limpet shells
>black earth containing pottery sherds and human, ox, sheep, pig, deer, fox, fowl, dog, and otter bones
>paving of flat stones
>black earth and human bones
>scattered mussel shells

According to Aubrey Burl’s 1981 ‘Rites of the Gods’ Stuart Piggott and Alexander Keiller constructed a full size model of one of the Lanhill chambers and then attempted to get the body of an adult into it. Burl doesn’t mention whose body or whether that was a model too. The mind boggles. If you can find the Proc Prehist Soc for 1938 (v4) then you will be able to read all about it.

Burl describes the burial they were trying to emulate:

The original entrance was constricted by a slab in the floor and two upright fractured stones, leaving a gap about 2 ft wide and only just over a foot high. Inside the chamber an earth-covered skeleton had been discovered lying on its back with its knees pressed up to its chest. It was a man of about 50 whose left elbow, wounded in this youth, had remained rigidly flexed for the rest of his life. Other bones and skulls lay tidily around the sides of the chamber. Such an arrangement in a space hardly 4ftx3ft could only have been achieved by someone wriggling into the chamber, lying on his stomach to stack up the bones and clear a space at the centre, and pushing himself out backwards. In turn the corpse, 2 or 3 days after death whn rigor mortis had gone, was laid in the short passage in front of the entrance, on its back, head over the portal slab, and shoved forward until its shoulders were inside the chamber. Only then could it be swivelled round, its legs tied up to its chest, until it slumped partly onto its side in the chamber. A thin skim of earth was spread over the body, almost like a blanket, leaving the head uncovered.

There are two round barrows here (you’ll have to look carefully though, as they are less than half a metre high), set close to the crest of a hill, and they were found to conceal some interesting burials. The smr record on ‘Magic’ says:

One of these barrows was partially excavated in 1847, when eight skeletons were found, lying in seven stone-lined graves arranged in a circle around the circumference of the mound. One of the skeletons was accompanied by a spearhead. Three feet below the top of the mound was another skeleton. Finds from the barrow included about 30 yellow glass and amber beads, several iron spearheads, a shield boss, a saucer-brooch, the decorative plates from three brooches, silver earrings and a bronze ring. The site was re examined in 1869 by Playne, who claimed that the centre portion of the barrow was undisturbed,
and reported finding charcoal, bones, potsherds and worked flints at ground level.

This doesn’t really enlighten us as to when the burials were made? It sounds rather like reuse of a bronze-age barrow?

Moss’s post led me to remember I’d read about these tumuli in a dusty journal (Som. Arch. Soc. Proc. Bath Branch) – Thomas Bush apparently excavated them in 1909 and found ‘many flints’ (chips, scrapers, etc). Curiously he found 177 in the easterly one, but only 20 in the other. He also found some bits of burnt pottery.

“The tenant told us he understood that many years ago the barrow was dug into for the purpose of getting stones, but on coming across some bones the quarrying was stopped.”

The article also noted that the ‘twin barrows’ (as he called them, though it doesn’t mention whether this was an actual name or just his description) are immediately north of the hedge which marks the boundary between Somerset and Gloucestershire, and lie in a field called Barland’s Hill. There are springs close by, also on the boundary.

themodernantiquarian.com/site/7050

The latest location of Le Mont de la Ville: Park Place country club.

This small univallate fort is smothered in trees but its location cries out for a camp and is very obvious from local vantage points like Cley Hill, and it overlooks Longleat. The ramparts are in the shape of a round-cornered triangle, and in one place the 1.6m bank and 1.8m ditch create an impressive defence. There’s been some sand quarrying which has disturbed the earthworks and the inside, which according to the SMR on Magic was probably carried out in the 19th century.

There are eight small stones here: five recumbent, and three standing. The monument’s described in the smr as a ‘stone setting’ – they’re positioned apparently randomly. There are said to be six other monuments within 1km.

According to Liam Rogers’ article on the Malverns at
whitedragon.org.uk/articles/malverns.htm
there is a spring on the north of British Camp called Pewtress Spring*, and this is where William Langland fell asleep and received his inspiration for ‘Piers Plowman’ (must have been the soothing white noise). This is a long alliterative poem second only to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales in medieval literature.

In the first of eleven visions the narrator, called The Dreamer, similarly resting by a stream, looks down at the people below the Malvern hills and instructs them to follow a pilgrimage towards salvation and truth.

You can read the first part of the poem at Representative Poetry Online
eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display/poem1226.html

(*now the Primeswell spring where, disappointingly, the evil empire CocaCola bottles Malvern Water from? guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1357991,00.html )

At the very south ende of the chirch of South-Cadbyri standith Camallate, sumtyme a famose toun or castelle, upon a very torre or hill, wunderfully enstrengtheid of nature, to the which be 2. enteringes up by very stepe way: one by north est and another by south west.

The very roote of the hille wheron this forteres stode is more then a mile in cumpace. In the upper parte of the coppe of the hille be 4. diches or trenches, and a balky waulle or yerth betwixt every one of them. In the very toppe of the hille above al the trenchis is magna area or campus of 20. acres or more by estimation,.wher yn dyverse places men may se fundations and rudera of walles. There was much dusky blew stone that people of the villages therby hath caryid away.

This top withyn the upper waulle is xx. acres of ground and more, and hath bene often plowid and borne very good corne. Much gold, sylver and coper of the Romaine coynes hath be found ther yn plouing : and lykewise in the feldes in the rootes of this hille, with many other antique thinges, and especial by este. Ther was found in hominum memoria a horse shoe of sylver at Camallate. The people can telle nothing ther but that they have hard say that Arture much restorid to Camalat.

from John Leland’s ‘Itinerary’ (1542), an excerpt taken from the Britannia webpage
britannia.com/history/docs/leland.html

“Local resident William Barnes, now best known for his poems in the Dorset dialect, was concerned at the proposals by the London & South Western Railway to remove a large part of the ancient earthworks of Maumbury Rings and at the Great Western Railway’s intention to put a deep cutting through the Roman aqueduct at Poundbury. As a result, Barnes became one of the founder members of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society. The Society eventually founded the County Museum.”

From the Dorset Model Railway Association webpages at
myweb.tiscali.co.uk/34091/Dorset-Railways/dorset_railways_exhibition_notice.htm

Rawlsbury (900ft above sea level) is the second highest hill fort in Dorset being surpassed only by Pilsdon Pen (970ft). It is superbly sited and on a clear day there is a sweep of country all around which in sheer beauty can scarcely be surpassed in all England. Before you lie the Purbeck Hills running down to the sea, the great heath, the glorious fertile Vale of Blackmore running across to Somerset, and Glastonbury Tor. All this can be seen on one side whilst to the other the hill top town of Shaftesbury, the mid-Dorset downs and far away Hampshire and the Isle of Wight can be seen. Truly a place worth visiting for the view alone. This fort must have been well nigh impregnable but as it has never been excavated we do not know if it fell to Vespasian. Certainly from Hod and Hambledon Vespasian must have seen Rawlsbury very clearly and is unlikely to have left so powerful a fort uncaptured on his flank.

‘Exploring Ancient Dorset’ by George Osborn, 1976.

Coflein’s record says:

The site, which occupies a triangular patch of ground beside the road, has undulating, disturbed ground, forming a possible mound approximately 2.5m diameter and 0.5m tall. On the W side is an unusually wide drystone field wall.
R Hayman, Hayman & Horton, 18/12/2003

The Three Tremblers are three adjacent round barrows, the tallest about 3m high. They are in The Tabular Hills in Wykeham Forest – an area which contains a large number of prehistoric monuments from Neolithic to Iron Age times.

But why are they called the Three Tremblers? Someone must have a story to explain. Perhaps if you sit on them you can feel strange goings-on beneath the ground. Perhaps this whole region is a bit strange – well it would explain the large number of barrows here (Or perhaps it’s got nothing to do with it).