wysefool

A sharks tooth (a ‘mako’ shark) was found in the bell barrow and reported as possibly having been used as a decoration (i.e. necklace).

(wiltshire archaeological mag, vols 72/73 – 1977/78)

Barry Cunliffe – Wessex to 1000 AD (published 1993)

‘Apart from the dog, which existed in domesticated form in the Mesolithic period, the earliest domesticated animals known from Wessex are cattle and sheep or goat, both of which have been identified at the long barrows of Lambourn (c.4200BC) and Fussel’s Lodge (c.4000BC). Domesticated pigs are first recorded in the pre-enclosure level at Windmill Hill in a context dated to c.3800BC.‘

Wysefool says: Interesting that the date for the animal find (presumably bone) is given as circa 4200BC, an earlier date than I’d previously thought for the ‘Oldest Long Barrow in England’ an older than the ‘Magic’ date of 3415BC. The date of 4200BC was from radiocarbon dating and therefore could be plus/minus a fair few years, but not 800 odd!

extract from ‘Berkshire’ by Harold Peake, concerning the first dig at Waylands:

‘... it was not until 1919 that any scientific exploration of it was undertaken. This exploration was conducted by Mr Reginald Smith and Mr C R Peers, with a number of Berkshire Colleagues, in July 1919 and June 1920. Among the interesting things that they found were two iron currency bars, dating from the Early Iron Age, dug up from the foot of the stone upon which it had been customary to place the groat.

The chamber has always been known to consist of a central passage, with a square chamber on either side and one at the end. The end slab has every appearance of having been a roofing slab that has slipped down behind two side stones at the end of this chamber, but no steps have been taken to ascertain whether the passage continued beyond it. The most interesting discovery made was that the sides of the barrow had been supported by dry walling of large sarsen stones set with a decided ramp. Remains of eight skeletons were found in the chambers, but in a bad state of preservation, while a burial in a crouched position was found just outside on the west. In spite of a careful search no grave furniture was found.‘

from ‘Berkshire’ by Ian Yarrow

‘... the camp is enclosed within a single rampart and ditch, and a walk right round is about one mile in length. A Neolithic axehead and a Bronze Age urn have been found within the camp, indicating that it was in use for some purpose before the Iron Age.‘

from ‘Berkshire’ by Ian Yarrow

‘...Cwichelmeshlaew, once described as “the boast and glory of our downs”, was for long thought to be a burial-place of Cwichelm, a saxon chief, but in 1934 Mr Harold Peake, after a thorough excavation, came to the conclusion that most probably this was not a burial-place at all and had been constructed for some purpose during the early iron age.’ (my italics)

from ‘Berkshire’ by Ian Yarrow

‘A chambered long barrow was discovered in 1935 br Mr L V Grinsell ... who was wandering among the lambourn seven barrows one sunny september day. It may sound amazing that a barrow 220ft long and 50ft wide should have passed unnoticed until 1935. But the thing was not so obvious as it sounds, for one end of it was ploughed up, and a cart-track and a grassy bank ran across the other end. It was, in fact, pretty well hidden, and it took a “barrow detective” like Mr Grinsell to spot it. The sarsen stones which originally formed the passage and chambers lay beneath the cart-track and had become exposed.‘

extract from ‘Berkshire’ by Ian Yarrow

‘...The camp is so obviously Roman with its oyster shells and rectangular shape that it is easy to forget that Bronze and Iron Age things have been unearthed here and that the Roman oyster shells should more properly be grouped with the bottle tops and ice-cream papers left behind by twentieth-century invaders. Lady readers may be interested to know that here at Lowbury the skeleton of a woman, her skull smashed in, was found buried in the foundations of a stone wall.‘

Wysefool says: The last time i went up to Lowbury, there was def some bumps of round barrows there, if they are Bronze Age or Roman, i do not know.

From David Nash Ford – Berkshire History Website (www.berkshirehistory.com)

‘There was a sizable community settled in Compton parish as far back as the bronze Age when banks and ditches were constructed around a settlement which, in the Iron Age, was turned into the hillfort of Perborough Castle. The inhabitants farmed the surrounding area quite intensively and a large number of field systems have been examined on nearby Cow Down.‘

According to L V Grinsell in his book White Horse Hill and surrounding country:

‘Between Uffington Castle and the White Horse is an oblong mound which was opened in 1857 by Mr E Martin ATkins, when forty-six skeletons were found in forty-two graves nearly all of which were placed east/west. Five of the skeletons had small bronze coins placed in their mouths, and these were evidently Roman or Romano-British burials, the coins being placed in the mouths of the deceased, after the well known Roman custom, for the purpose of paying the Charon for ferrying them across the River Styx to the next world. The ages of the people represented by the skeletons varied between 1 and 70 or more, and they were of both sexes. Four of the skeletons were headless. One of them was accompanied by a vase of red ware, probably Roman, which is now in the Roman Room at the British Museum. In the centre of this mound there was a coarse urn with two handle like bosses, filled with burnt bones and arched over with sarsens. This find rather suggests the possibility that the mound may originally have been a round barrow which was later altered in shape to contain the forty-six Roman or Romano-British Skeletons.‘

This round barrow was excavated by Martin-Atkins in 1857 who reported finding 9 skeletons. The 1993 dig found sherds of Bronze Age pottery and, a more recent internment, a book entitled ‘Demonology and Witchcraft’ by Walter Scott and published in 1831. The inside cover was daubed with red ink and inscribed with the words ‘Demon de Uffing’. Some damage to the book was evident, although it was reported that the book was in generally good condition. (the reason for this is given as the chalk soil mix).

---

‘The excavator was confident that the ground around the location of the book’s burial had not been recently disturbed, and therefore a pre-excavation joke by persons unknown was ruled out. In theory the book could have been deposited during the 19th-century excavations, but it is more likely that its burial is related to one of the more recent revivals in the mystical aspects of the White Horse and its surroundings.’ – Alan Hardy

This slight oblong shaped mound was first excavated by Edwin Martin-Atkins (local landowner) in 1857 and 1858 where he found 46 inhumantions and a few cremation burials. The site was re-excavated in 1993 and from the findings it is accepted as orignally a Neolithic burial site.

‘While visiting the Seven Barrows the reader should not fail to see the long barrow north-west of the main group, which was found by the writer in 1935.’ (found by L V Grinsell)

There is good evidence that the banks of Segsbury Castle were originally faced with sarsens. The following quotation is taken from T Hearne’s Letter containing an account of some Antiquities between Windsor and Oxford (1725) -

...Sackborough Castle (by which name they call certain strange works, or an old camp) on the South-East side of Wantage in Berks, about two miles from it. It is in a manner round, tho’ I cannot call it a perfect round. I take it, however, to be Danish. Within the Bank that lies on the Inside of this Camp, or as they vulgarly call it, Castle, they dig vast red stones, being a red flint, some of which a cart will hardly draw. They have dug up a great many loads of them, and with many of them they build. They are placed in the banks of the dike or trench in form of a wall. ... When first I walk’d in those parts, I inquired, where it was they could either dig or meet with such stones? It was answer’d that the like occur’d upon Lambourn Downs. Upon which I concluded, and afterwards found, that they grow upon those downs.

From White Horse Hill and surrounding country, by L V Grinsell

‘....near the scarp foot stands the curious isolated stump of Dragon Hill. This spur of natural rock has been shaped for some unknown purpose in antiquity. Its sides have been steepened and its top levelled to make a drum shape. In the early nineteenth century Dragon Hill was thought to be a built feature such as a barrow, and the Saxons believed it was a barrow too, but when explored in 1852 it was concluded that it was a natural rock outcrop. Its projection well above the surrounding chalk slope nevertheless suggests that it is at least in part a built feature.‘

From ‘Ancient British Hill Figures’ by Rodney Castleden.

He also writes that in the Saxon charters it was named Ecelesbeorg (church barrow?) and
that roman coins were found on the summit.