Chance

Details of Long Barrow on Pastscape

A Neolithic long barrow survives as earthworks at the south-western end of the Winterbourne Stoke Crossroads round barrow cemetery (Monument Number 219525). It comprises a long mound, up to 3m high, 83.7m long and 26.9m wide, which extends south-west / north-east and is flanked to either side by ditches. The mound has the appearance of two conjoined round barrows, but this is the result of extensive damage by excavation, animal burrowing and quarrying for chalk in the early 20th century. The long barrow was excavated by Thurnam in 1863, who found a primary inhumation and six secondary burials. The barrow was listed as Winterbourne Stoke Down 1 by Hoare (1812), and as Winterbourne Stoke 1 by Goddard (1913), Cunnington (1914), and Grinsell (1957). The long barrow was mapped from aerial photographs at a scale of 1:10,000 as part of the RCHME: Salisbury Plain Training Area NMP and the English Heritage Stonehenge WHS Mapping project. The long barrow was surveyed at a scale of 1:1000 in August 2009 as part of English Heritage’s Stonehenge WHS Landscape Project.

Details of Barrow cemetery on Pastscape

[A SK 86642790 B SK 86702783] Tumuli [OE] (1)
“On the south side [of King Lud’s Entrenchments] near the East end of two barrows: one close to the ditch is 86 yds round and about 8 ft high; the other at the distance of 60 or 70 yds is 96 yds round and apparently the same height.” This latter barrow was opened by the first Duke of Rutland who found it ‘full of bones’. Two hollow places near the top have not been completely filled in. (2)
‘Two heaps to the SE of the E end [of King Lud’s Entrenchments] are called Tumuli on the Ordnance Survey map: one of these
lately excavated proved only to be a rubbish heap’. (3)

‘A’ Round Barrow, almost destroyed; diameter 22 paces; height 1ft.
‘B’ Round Barrow ruthlessly destroyed; not filled in. A large number of large stones are showing in centre. Diameter 32 paces; height 4’6” – 5’.
‘C’ [SK 8679 2775] Doubtful Round Barrow full of rabbit holes and almost flat; dark earth at centre; diameter 15 paces; height 1ft.
‘D’ Round Barrow 26 paces in diameter; height 6 ft; small depression on top; slopes to the north; carries a number of pine
trees. [SK 86752794]. (4)
`E’ [SK 86682787] A small barrow here. (5)

On 21st September, 1860, Thomas Bateman opened two barrows at Saltby. The first excavated is that nearest ‘King Luds Entrenchment‘
(A). Fragments of an urn of “coarse Celtic Pottery” a human skeleton and the bones of a dog and other animals were found. At a depth of 5ft on the natural surface, evidence of a large fire was found and among the charcoal, a tarsal ox bone. The second barrow (B) yielded only animal bones. Discolouration of the natural surface indicated a fire but all traces of charcoal had been removed before the barrow was constructed. (6)

The barrow ‘A’ SP 86632789 has been completely destroyed.
The barrow ‘B’ SP 86692782 remains but is much spread.
The barrow ‘C’ SP 86782775 has been destroyed.
The barrow ‘D’ SP 86752793 is in good condition 1.7m high.
Surveyed at 1:2500.
Several other barrows were seen as low spread mounds of stone in arable land at SP 86442808, 86612804, 86732808 and 86772807.
Also two large areas of scattered stone with indications of barrows were noted centred to SP 86402815 and SP 86602810. No traces of E, the barrow noted by Dare (5) was seen – destroyed by war-time buildings. (7)

At Saltby more barrows have been located forming a dispersed cemetery along the northern edge of the former Saltby Heath. There are now six certain barrows and six possible barrows located. (8)

SK 8670 2783 Barrow ‘B’ was excavated by Leic. Archaeological Unit from August to November 1978. It proved to be a composite earth and stone barrow. Five phases were distinguished; 1. pre-Barrow buried soil, 2. primary Funerary monument (earth with stone kerb), 4. completion of mound construction limestone capping, ditch and satellite burials and a secondary central burial, 5. later activity. Radiocarbon dating suggested tree clearance in 3220 + or – 90 B.C. The primary burial was dated 1550 + or – 70 B.C., the satellites 1380 + or – 90 B.C. and 1400 + or – 90 B.C. and a secondary burial 1490 + or – 70 B.C. In all six definite cremation burials were recovered and the remains of a possible seventh were found in the ring ditch. Two complete collared urns were recovered along with over 90 sherds of other pots including Beaker sherds. (9)

The barrow B, recorded by Authority 9 was seen as a cropmark and mapped from poor quality air photographs; it has a diameter of approximately 20m. The remaining barrows could not be identified. Centred at:-SK 8668 2783 (Morph No. LI.780.4.1) This description is based on data from the RCHME MORPH2 database. (10)
King Lud’s Intrenchments (see SK 82 NE 1) and two adjoining tumuli – SK 8664 2790. Monument No. 90656 formerly LE 46b. Barrow. Descheduled.
SK 8670 2783. Monument No. 90655 formerly LE 46c. Barrow. Descheduled. (11)

Details of site on Pastscape

[SK 8583 2799 to SK 8662 2795] King Lud’s Entrenchments (NR) [SK 8685 2793] The Tent [NR] (1)
‘William, Earl of Bologne, Mortaigne and Warren, who died in 1160 gave 40 acres of land at Saltby to the Abbey of Croxton and all the waste lands at the three dykes.’ ‘On the boundaries of Saltby and Croxton is a rampart called King Lud’s Intrenchments, extending from East to West for nearly 3/4 mile, consisting of a double ditch and several pits or hollows, one deeper than ordinary, into which they say, were stone stairs.’ ‘From the West it descends a gentle valley which it crosses near the East and terminates on rising ground at a pit called The Tent [’F’] where tradition says King Lud was killed. From ditch to ditch it is 7 yds broad, and in other places not more than 4 yards. Where the plough and spade have spared it, it is 6 ft high’. (2)
King Lud’s Entrenchments. (Miscellaneous Earthwork – Class X). A line of entrenchments 3,050 ft long, lies due east and west; it occupies ground slightly higher than its southern prospect, in which direction the land gradually falls. The extreme west consists of a double fosse and single vallum, but it has been weakened in recent years; the most perfect section is one-third of its distance from the west, here are a triple vallum and double fosse; From the north side the vallum is 4ft high and 10 ft wide, the first fosse is 8 ft deep, the second vallum, of the same height, is 15ft wide, the second fosse 6 ft deep, and the outer vallum, 11ft wide, is 4ft above the exterior level. The eastern third of the entrenchments has almost perished.
The Tent is a deep pear-shaped excavation, perhaps a dwelling or a guardroom; the entrance is at the north-west, close to the vallum, at which point was also an entrance through the lines. A bank is around the curve of the north-east side, from which the hollow is 26ft deep. (3)
King Lud’s Entrenchments have no special command of the neighbourhood; about 450ft above sea level, with land to the immediate north rather higher. The earthwork which consists of two ramparts and two ditches may have extended a few hundred feet further to the East; its purpose is uncertain, but it does not appear to have formed a boundary dike. It is now [1913]
planted with trees. (4)
A double-ditched dyke; traces of the work begin on the north edge of Egypt Plantation, a little to the east of The Tent. It gets stronger till near the west of Cooper’s Plantation the ditches are as much as 3 ft deep and then it tails off to vanish
before it reaches the road north of Saltby. The parish boundaries to the east and west look very much as though the work had once been much longer. (5)
Scheduled Monuments in Leicestershire. King Lud’s Entrenchments. Saxon. A boundary of Frontier earthwork double-ditched. [No period is allocated to this earthwork in the Ministry of Works scheduled list]. (6)
Possible traces of a continuation of this feature are visible from SK 8452 2756 to SK 8421 2755. (7)
The three dykes mentioned by Authority 2, consist of ‘King Lud’s Intrenchment’ and the ‘Foulding Dykes’.

Nichols states:- “Half a mile nearer Sproxton (From King Lud’s Intrenchment) a single ditch with a mound on each side crosses the road almost at right angles, the extent of which seems not more than 200 yards, and a quarter of a mile further is another running in the same direction for 3/4 mile. These two are called the Foulding Dykes .... the three entrenchments taken together (are called) the Three Dykes”. (8)
The Foulding Dykes were not located; it is likely that they were destroyed by the construction of the airfield as was the eastern end of King Lud’s. The remaining portions of the intrenchment are probably in much the same condition as they were in Nichols time; it is of a weak nature and was probably not defensive, more a boundary work. The bank to the south carries the footings of a stone wall, probably a later addition.
The reference to its existence pre-1160 in an area of waste land makes it vitually certain to be of Anglo-Saxon date, possibly the boundaries of a petty kingdom. Published survey 25” revised.
“The Tent” is a disused quarry of no archaeological import. (9)
The linear earthwork recorded by Authorities 1-9 was partially visible on vertical photography of various dates, but for much of its length it is obscured by tree cover; the Tent could not be identified for the same reason. (Morph No. LI.780.3.1)
The Foulding Dykes, mentioned by Authority 9, were not positively identified, but two separate linear features, running east-west, and lying between King Lud’s Entrenchments and Sproxton village were seen as cropmarks and are separately recorded as SK 82 NE 22 and SK 82 NE 48. This description is based on data from the RCHME MORPH2 database.(10)

SK 8584 2798 – SK 8718 2784. King Lud’s Intrenchments and adjacent barrow.
Earthworks exist in Cooper’s Plantation for a distance of 750m and include three parallel banks separated by two ditches. The ditches are up to 1.5m deep and an average of 8m wide and the banks up to 0.5m high. An excavation section of the ditches has shown that the southern ditch is `V’-shaped in profile and the northern ditch `U’-shaped. There are also slight earthworks in Egypt Plantation comprising a single bank, to the north of a disused quarry, is up to 0.75m high and 8m with slight remains of a ditch on its northern side. Both earthworks have been modified by wartime airfield activity.
On the eastern side the entrenchments join the prehistoric trackway known as Sewstern Lane (LINEAR 77). The earthworks have long been considered as of Saxon origin, specifically identified with Ludeca of Mercia, but recent aerial photographic work has suggested that the monument may be part of an extensive prehistoric boundary system extending from Northamptonshire to the Humber and termed `the Jurassic spine’.
Associated with the linear monument is a Bronze Age barrow cemetery (SK 82 NE 2), of which one barrow is known to survive and is included in the scheduling [although not recorded under SK 82 NE 2]. The barrow measures about 25m in diameter and 1.5m high with no visible surrounding ditch. A hollow in the centre is the result of an excavation by Bateman in 1860 (but see SK 82 NE 2).
Scheduled (RSM) No. 17107. (11)

Details of barrow on Pastscape

SK 588 123 Peek and Parsons note an irregular ring shaped ditch diameter 120 feet which they presume to be a Bronze Age barrow ditch. (1)

Details of Causewayed Enclosure on Pastscape

A Neolithic causewayed enclosure identified in the summer of 1999 following geophysical survey in the area of a flint scatter near Husbands Bosworth. The site comprises two closely-spaced concentric circuits of interrupted ditch enclosing an area of circa 1.5 hectares. Trial trenching has recovered late Neolithic pottery and flint from the upper levels of the ditches. There is some suggestion of an internal bank, while post holes between the two ditch circuits have been tentatively interpreted as some kind of revetment for the bank.

Details of barrow 1 on Pastscape

SK 6059 1286 Two Early Bronze Age ring ditches were photographed from the air and subsequently excavated prior to quarrying in 1976. One was a small ring ditch of c 16 metres diameter while the second, a double ring ditch, was 35 metres and 51 metres and in diameter. The smaller barrow appears to have contained an inhumation burial, which did not survive the acid soil. To one side of this was a small cremation burial of 11 burials, 3 in large collared urns. The larger barrow contained at least 5 burials, the primary burial being a crouched inhumation with grave goods consisting of a food vessel, a pygmy cup, a plano-convex flint knife, a broken flint knife, a small stone vessel and a stone knife. Another burial pit containing a collared urn but no skeleton was cut into the top of the primary burial. Other burials in the barrow were cremations. (1)

Details of barrow 2 on Pastscape

Platts Lane: archaeological watching brief and excavation prior to gravel extraction (1999) revealed the denuded remains of a Bronze Age round barrow. To the South West lay evidence of a round house of Iron Age date. A series of later burials cut into the barrow which held seven groups of Early Medieval Anglo-Saxon ironwork, mainly spearheads. Other material from the mound included a complete Roman pottery vessel and a glass bead and Bronze Age/Iron Age pottery. To the East a small rectilinear enclosure, a post alignment, field systems and a palaeochannel were recorded.

Details of site on Pastscape

SP 576849 Recent re-examination of a cropmark on J Pickering’s aerial photographs (NMR SP 5784/4-10) has led to the identification of what appears to be a long mortuary enclosure or a plough razed long barrow. The crop mark is lozenge-shaped, is orientated northeast/southwest and has dimensions of c. 15 x 80 metres. No certain break or entrance causeway is visible in the ditch which appears to be regular and no more than c. 2 metres wide. There is nothing visible on the ground.

Details of barrow on Pastscape

Misterton with Walcote 3: SP 5607 8389

Earthen bowl barrow 1.5 miles east of Lutterworth situated largely within a cultivated field but also partly within a domestic garden. The barrow is roughly 40m in diameter and 1m high and aerial photography shows a surrounding ditch. A prehistoric flint implement was found during fieldwalking adjacent to the site.
A second barrow lies to the south but does not survive well and is not included in the scheduling.
Scheduled (RSM) No 17086.

Details of barrow on Pastscape

Misterton with Walcote 2: SP 562 839

The Lutterworth Fieldwork Group have located a Bronze Age barrow at this NGR. It shows up well on aerial photographs taken by J Pickering but is only discernable on the ground as a shallow rise in the field surface.

Details of barrow on Pastscape

Misterton with Walcote 1: SP 560 838

The Lutterworth Fieldwork Group have discovered a Bronze Age round barrow. It lies partly in a garden and partly in a field. It stands about a metre high. A fine plano-convex knife of early Bronze Age date was recovered from close to barrow.

Details of barrows on Pastscape

Within 500 yards of the 1865 discoveries [beaker etc., see SP 68 SW 3] is an artifical mound, doubtless a barrow of the same period. it is said that another mound was levelled at the time the Rugby and Stamford Railway was made its contents dispersed. (Cf SP 68 SW 1) (1) [SP 6240 8449] A mound, between the road and railway, [pointed out on ground] is said locally to be an antiquity (a) (2) A bowl barrow, approx. 20.0m. in diameter and approx. 1.5m high. The field and mound are under a crop of young wheat and, inaccessible. The barrow occupies the summit of a knoll in an undulating area. No evidence of a second barrow was seen along the nearby railway in the area indicated centred at SP 6270 8433. (3) Located and surveyed on field document. (4) No change. The barrow has been much spread by the plough and is correct as shown on OS 25” 1961. (5)
The published barrow is now described as being destroyed by the OS Field Examiner. (6)

Details of burial on Pastscape

[Marginal] Portion of an ancient British urn of hour-glass form, found with some human bones, 3 ft. below the surface, on land at North Kilworth where gravel was being dug for railway purposes, in August 1865. The urn would probably be 7 in. high, with a diameter of 5 in., the exterior scored and lined in patterns In form, the sherd which was exhibited at the Annual Meeting of the Society in 1866, would closely resemble vessels figured in Wrights ‘The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon’ (numbers 4 & 5, p.67) [which are examples of a beaker and an urn of B.A. type]. A similar vessel, discovered entire, in the winter of 1864-5, was destroyed by workmen employed in getting out gravel. [For barrow(s) said to be ‘of the same period’ see SP 68 SW 20.] (1)
[Area centred SP 62108413] A large, overgrown and disused, gravel-pit, between the road and the railway [indicated on ground] is known as ‘The Ballast Hole’ and the source from which the adjacent railway was constructed. (2)
Nothing of significance was seen in the area of the pit. The beaker, of ‘A’ type, reconstructed, is now displayed in Leicester Museum, Accn. No.215/1953. It was given by the British Museum, having been acquired from a London dealer in 1938(b). (3)

Details of barrow on Pastscape

SK 45230116. A circular turf-covered mound, 1.3m. high, is located in level pasture at 130.0m. O.D. The mound is 13.0m. in diameter, and is surrounded by a slight ditch 0.2m. deep and 0.8m. wide. The base of the mound is surrounded by mature oak trees. No evidence of any structure is visible on the mound, and it may be the remains of a bowl barrow.
Surveyed on 1:2500 M.S.D. (1)

Details of barrow on Pastscape

An Early Bronze Age round barrow at Piper Hole Farm, Eaton excavated in 1979 following recognition that the site was suffering from plough damage. Four concentric ring ditches were present. The innermost was 3 metres wide, 1 metre deep and up to 17 metres in diameter. It had a causeway 1 metre wide on its south western side. The outermost of the four ditches was 40 metres in diameter, 4 metres wide and 0.9 metres deep. The central area contained three or four burials, all stratigraphically linked. The earliest was a cremation in a small wooden coffin, and was accompanied by a small flint flake.

A rectangular pit which disturbed this first interment contained traces of an oak coffin plus fragments of human teeth. It is assumed that an inhumation was present, but did not survive in the acidic soil conditions. A shallow pit cutting this second grave contained an adult cremation, a flint flake and a sherd of Beaker pottery. A radiocarbon date of 1500+/-70 bc (uncalibrated) was obtained from charcoal in the pit. Finally, a fourth possible burial comprised a shallow pit containing some fragmentary bone. 161 stake holes were found, the majority within the area enclosed by the second ditch, the majority cutting the backfilled inner ditch. The excavations also produced a small quantity of Beaker and Early Bronze Age potsherds, a quantity of flints, and over 1900 sherds of Romano-British potsherds recovered from ploughsoil above and adjacent areas.

Details of barrow on Pastscape

SP 473 886 Peek and Parsons note circular cropmarks on aerial photographs.
A mound or tumulus is shown on Stukeley’s drawing of the area in 1722.
This barrow was excavated revealing an inhumation burial. (1)

Details of barrows on Pastscape

(SK 41410063) Tumulus (NR) (1)
“Sutton Cheney. Bone pin found in a disturbed barrow opened by Sir John Evans in 1851”. (2)
Peek and Parsons state that there are two ounds at Sutton Cheney, SK 414006, both visited on the ground. They say that the one south west of the road to Bosworth (SK 41410063) is the tumulus opened by Evans. Daniell however believes the find came from the barrow to the north east of the road at SK 414008, which was ploughed in 1955. The bone pin, Early Bronze Age, is in the Ashmolean Museum. (3-4)
Small circular tree covered mound, probably the barrow referred to by Daniell, visible to the north east of the road at SK 41420081. (5)

A: SK 41410063 An irregular tree covered mound with a maximum height of 1.3m, landscaped, and forming an integral part of a large formal garden; the north east quadrant is cut obliquely by the Sutton Cheyney – Market Bosworth road. No ditch is evident and the feature cannot be recognised as a burial mound; however the cutting (for a very early road) gives proof of some antiquity and it is scheduled as a round barrow.
Published survey 1:2500 correct.

B: SK 41410079 A round barrow previously tree covered but now under a cereal crop. The feature has a maximum diameter of 26.0m and a maximum height of 0.2m; there is no evidence of a ditch. Surveyed on MSD at 1:2500.

Both barrows are situated at 125.0m OD in open positions on high ground. The farmer could offer no useful information and it cannot now be stated which barrow produced the pin. (6)
SK 4141 0062. Bowl barrow at Sutton Cheney. The barrow is about 2m high and is flat topped. Truncating by the road on the east and lanscaping on the north has left the barrow with a square appearance measuring circa 20m on each side. There is no indication of a surrounding ditch. A second barrow located 150m to the north does not survive well and is not included in the scheduling. Scheduled (RSM) No 17081. (7)

Details of barrow on Pastscape

(SK 61631060) Tumulus (site of) (1) “A large round tumulus which I suppose Roman”. (2) A tumulus, now levelled, in which an urn, now in Leicester Museum, was found. It was situated at a place called Round Hill where the road to Barkby turned off the Fosse Way. (3) VCH has listed this item under both Roman and Bronze Age. The illustration is of a Bronze Age cinerary urn with cremation. (4) A description and illustration of the Bronze Age urn. (5) No trace of this barrow is now to be seen. The MBA urn is in Leics Museum. (6)

Details of site on Pastscape

SP 468893. Triple ditch circle, 1/2mile north-west of High Cross -? Henge monument. Not visisted in the field by Peck or Parsons. Nothing visible on RAF air photographs. (1) The indicated site is under crop; there is no evidence of the feature on the surface and no finds were made. (2) SP 469894. Round barrow 820m east of Smockington Hollow, Scheduled. (3)
SP 4694 8938. Bowl barrow at Wigston Parva, roughly circular, about 60m in diameter following plough spread and 1m high with no visible earthwork ditch. Aerial photography has shown this site to possess four concentric surrounding ditches and it is considered that it represents a multi-phase Bronze Age barrow site. Scheduled. (4)

Details of barrow on Pastscape

SP46698924 Bowl Barrow shown from aerial photographs indicating that the ditches which surround the barrow still survive. The upstanding barrow has been reduced by continued agricultural use. (1)