Tumulus (destroyed): OS Grid Reference – SE 0095 2748
Archaeology & History
Up behind the old pub that was The Mount Skip, high on the ridge above Hebden Bridge and Mytholmroyd, overlooking the Calder Valley for many miles, was once — it would seem — a number of fine prehistoric remains, long since destroyed by the industrial advance of quarrying and such likes. Amidst what seems to have been settlement remains and, perhaps, timber circles, an ancient grave was also known here. In Mr Ling Roth’s (1906) essay on the prehistoric remains of the Halifax region, he wrote:
“In May, 1897, a grave was discovered at a quarry above Mount Skip Inn. The first indications were the rolling down of pieces of urns which the delvers called flower pots. Then in digging into a hole to fix the leg of a crane, human bones were discovered, Mr Crossley Ainsworth told me: “The grave was about 6ft (1.8m) long, from 14 to 18in (35-45.7cm) wide and about 2ft (61cm) deep…the head and feet were almost exactly north and south, with the face right towards the midday sun.” The bones were very brittle and crumbled easily in the hand. There was a lot of charcoal in the grave. In the ends of the grave which were undisturbed, “there appeared to be about 6in (15cm) thick of charred wood and bones mixed together at the bottom. Flints were also found. Also the larger half of a small earthenware vessel which had rolled down into the quarry ; this was picked up by a man named Thos. Greenwood, of Shawcroft Hill.”
The site was mentioned again nearly fifty years later in Geoffrey Watson’s (1952) survey, but with no additional details.
References:
Roth, H. Ling, The Yorkshire Coiners 1767-183; and Notes on Old and Prehistoric Halifax, F. King and Son: Halifax 1906.
Watson, Geoffrey G., Early Man in the Halifax District, Halifax Scientific Society 1952.
This little known site, long since destroyed during the construction of Keighley Railway Station, was found in a curious spot, close to the bottom of the Aire Valley. Most (known) prehistoric burials occur on the higher grounds in this area. And though we don’t appear to have the exact location of the find, it was pretty close to either side of Keighley’s old railway station (which is shown as 100 yards to the other side of the road of the present station on the 1852 OS map). This may position the site as being on the grounds opposite and below St. Anne’s Church; otherwise it was getting closer to where the River Worth runs by. In Keighley & Holmes’ early (1858) work they told that,
“Whilst excavating for the Railway within about a hundred yards of the Keighley station, one of the labourers discovered three urns containing a quantity of human bones. Two of them were unluckily broken, one being large enough to hold eight or nine quarts. The one brought away whole, and seen by the present writer, may hold about a quart; it is somewhat distastefully designed, moulded by hand out of the common clay, without glaze, and rudely ornamented on the outside by some sharp implement. The once animated contents of each urn were covered by a square flat stone.”
This final remark seems to indicate the urns were located in a cist (a small stone grave), but we don’t know whether this was found within the remains of a denuded tumulus or stone cairn. However, considering the lack of any remarks about a large pile of stones (which would have been very noticeable) covering this burial site, it would seem more probable that this site was originally an earth-covered tumulus, whose visibility and knowledge had long since diminished in this part of Airedale.
References:
Keighley, William & Homes, Robert, Keighley, Past and Present, R. Aked: Keighley 1858.
Go through the village of Stanbury, past the last of the two reservoirs until you’re on the western edge of Ponden. Stop and look up the slopes to your south. This spot was recently found and photographed by Richard Stroud: a curious-looking mound with all the hallmarks of being a forgotten tumulus. We’ve gotta check it out properly though!
Folklore
Although not in the archaeological records (not too unusual in Yorkshire it seems), the site does have some literary references and some all-too-common folklore motifs. Perusing my library for info about another nearby site (the Cuckoo Stones), I found the following said of this place in a rare book by James Whalley called The Wild Moor (1869, pp.103):
“It appears that some hills, as well as dales…have silvery names. There is a hill which is on the right hand on the way from Ponden House to Crow Hill Moor, which is distinguished by the beautiful designation of ‘Silver Hill.’ The hill is surrounded by a wall (I suppose to guard the treasure) and its surface is adorned with trees. Grey-headed men living on the borders of Crow Hill and Lancashire Moors affirm that during the Scotch rebellion here was deposited a large chest of silver, which was hid in the hill. It would appear as if the chest of silver is still there!”
This tradition was echoed a decade later by J. Horsfall Turner, and then again by Halliwell Sutcliffe in 1899, who reckoned the “vast treasure was said to have been buried during the ’45 rebellion,” adding how “the fields which climb this hill were well tilled aforetime through being constantly turned over in search of the treasure” – but nowt was ever found.
An additional bit of folklore tells of two spirits nearby: one of a man; another of a fiery barrel — either a remnant of earlier solar folk traditions hereby, or perhaps just an earthlight. One of these (the fiery barrel) rolled down the hill nearby; whereby the ghost of the man walked by the hillock along the track from Ponden House a little further east.
References:
Horsfall-Turner, J., Haworth Past and Present, J.S. Jowett: Brighouse 1879.
Sutcliffe, Halliwell, By Moor and Fell in West Yorkshire, T. Fisher Unwin: London 1899.
In the superb work of the legendary J.R. Mortimer (1905) he tells what was found when him and his team excavated this “remarkable barrow,” as he called it. Although Mortimer’s contemporary researcher, Canon Greenwell (1877), also looked at the site, the “mound was covered with a clump of old fir trees” which prevented further examination at the time. Mortimer and his team seemed to have worked here when the trees had been felled and following “a three-week free use of the pick and shovel during July and August, 1878,” they opened up this prehistoric mound to see what lay within.
Their discoveries here were intriguing: for this wasn’t merely a burial site in its early phase but, moreso, a house of the dead no less, where the people whose bodies, or those who cremated ashes were deposited herein, lived in their spirit-life. It was an abode for the spirits of the dead. Mortimer’s lengthy notes tell the story:
“At the time of opening, it measured 4½ feet from base to summit, and the natural surface of the ground beneath it stood fully 1 foot higher than the present surface of the land for some distance round its margin. It was formed entirely of chalk rubble and soil, mainly obtained from an encircling trench, which on the northwest side was very deep and wide.
“We turned over the whole of this mound except its outskirts. Near the northwest margin there was an excavation (D on the plan) extending 8 to 10 inches below the base of the mound, and measuring 8½ feet by 6½ feet, the floor of which was covered with a film of dark matter, in which were small bits of burnt wood. No relic, nor the slightest trace of an interment was observed. A little west of the centre (at B) there was s still larger excavation, 18 inches deep. It contained rough chalk, but no traces of an interment. East of this was a third excavation (E), oval in form and 3 feet deep. Like the previous one it was filled with chalk and contained no relic or trace of a skeleton. The digging of these had preceded the erection of the mound, as there were no indications of it having been cut through. These excavations were doubtless graves, the bodies having entirely decayed.
“This was not, however, the case with the secondary and comparatively recent interments of six adult skeletons, found at the south-east side of the mound, 1 foot to 2 feet below its base. Though unaccompanied by any relic, the very narrow form of the graves and the extended and slightly flexed position of the interments alone showed them to be Anglo-Saxons.
“Below these secondary graves was an older and far more interesting excavation. Its form and position is shown on the plan at A. At first it was thought to be a huge grave, but as the work proceeded appearances indicating it to have served some other purpose were visible. Its filling-in was peculiar. It consisted of broken chalk, surface soil, and burnt wood, presenting altogether a very unusual arrangement. Along its centre for a distance of about 15 feet were six carbonized uprights of wood, 6 to 9 inches in diameter, at about equal distances and in a row. Wood ashes were also found on the sides and bottom, and scattered in the material filling the excavation.
“Also along the centre many of the large flat pieces of chalk stood on their edges, and at various depths were portions of animal and probably human bone, burnt as well as unburnt, and many fragments of a reddish urn. It was observed that the east end of this excavation became narrower and shallower. It now seemed evident that it was a habitation. Its form, as shown on the (above) plan, was oblong, with a ground floor 25 feet by 4½ feet; and its greatest depth was 6 feet. To its east end was a passage 11 feet long, gradually sloping to the surface.
“”On the south side, commencing at the inner end of the passage and extending inwards for about 12 feet, was a ledge or rock-seat, about 13 inches above the opposite side of the floor, as shown by the dotted lines in the plan and section. The whole width of the floor at the south-west end, for a distance of about 6 feet, was 10 to 12 inches above the centre and lowest part of the floor. The roof of the cave had most probably been formed of horizontal timber, supported by strong uprights of the same material, and then covered with a mound of earth and stones. The roof eventually gave way and the superincumbent earth and stones slid into the dwelling, several of the large flat stones…remaining on their edges.
“The abundance of wood ashes affords unquestionable evidence of the dwelling having been burnt. The preservation of the remains of the six uprights was due entirely to their having been completely charred. The fragments of red pottery are quite plain and belong to three or more vessels, which were probably used for domestic purposes.
“The roof of the cave must have fallen in long previous to the Anglo-Saxon interments, as where the skeletons were found, partly over the cave and partly upon the undisturbed rock, not the slightest distortion was visible, which would have been the case had not the filled-in portion under the bodies become firm. Near the south-side of the dwelling, at about the base of the mound, were several broken human bones and pieces of a dark-coloured urn. Probably these belonged to a disturbed Anglo-Saxon burial.
“We also found in the mound, between the graves E, B, D, a considerable quantity of detached animal and human bones; the latter indicated three or more individuals; a few of the bones showed traces of fire. There were also several small pieces of a dark plain urn.”
Mr Mortimer then commented on the unusual ‘habitation’ section within the mound, not thinking that the dead themselves “lived” here! But we can forgive him this small detail as his work in general was superb. The site was of course a decent East Yorkshire chambered tomb, wherein the dead were laid and, if entrance was ever possible by our tribal ancestors when it was erected, would have paid homage the ancestral figures buried here. Traditional death ceremonies were pretty inevitable I’d say.
References:
Mortimer, J.R., Forty Years Researches in British and Saxon Burial Mounds of East Yorkshire, Brown & Sons: Hull 1905.
Standing Stone (destroyed): OS Grid Reference – SO 117 544
Also Known as:
Hundred House Standing Stone
Archaeology & History
Position of the old stone (on one of Alf’s leys)
In a field less than 200 yards north of an old medieval mound known as The Mount, the great ley-hunter Alfred Watkins (1925) described a standing stone that used to be here along one of his leys, but which, even then, had been “inexplicably blown into several pieces by a quarrymen’s charge.”
The stone was said to have originally come from an adjacent field and then moved next to yet another monolith, which was also broken up. Can any remnants of these poor fellas still to be seen anywhere nearby? Or is it a case of yet another one bites the dust?
References:
Watkins, Alfred, The Old Straight Track: Its Mounds, Beacons, Moats, Sites and Mark Stones, Methuen: London 1925.
Prehistoric petroglyphs are rare things indeed in Leicestershire! But the example that was found here — at the now destroyed prehistoric tomb which archaeologists catalogued as ‘Lockington Barrow VI’ in this small graveyard — shows that such ritual art spreads further afield than previously reported by archaeologists. Yet as with countless other cup-marked stones, it should come as no surprise to be found associated with a tumulus. Death and petroglyphs are common bedfellows – even in this part of Britain!
Lockington cup-marking (courtesy Gwilym Hughes)Lockington cup-marked stone
Found on the northern edge of a ring ditch surrounding this once-fine tomb, the carving was found on a small, triangular-shaped, broken piece of rock , less than 12 inches across along its longest side. The small stone has what seems to be eight cup-marks (5 seem certain) pecked onto the stone: simple, without additional ingredients, akin to the basic forms found at Baildon and other more northern climes. The stone itself didn’t seem to be local and was thought by Hughes (2000) “to be from one of the outcrops of millstone grit to the north of the site in southern Derbyshire.”
Less than 7 feet from this petroglyph, inside the barrow, was a pit containing a hoard of ancient gold and copper ware — though any likely relationship between the carving and the treasure hoard is doubtful. The carving was probably a “portable” relic, carried some distance and put here for some reason or other: perhaps as an offering; perhaps a magickal artifact — we’ll probably never know…
Long since destroyed by the self-righteous advance of the Industrialists, this was a pretty impressive-looking tomb according to the account of D.M. Waterman (1951). Found between the villages of Ainderby Quernhow and Kirklington, right at the side of an important prehistoric trackway—later used by the Romans and known as Leeming Street (on what is now the A1 motorway). Waterman cited it as being “of primary importance in prehistoric times” as it stood on the great plain between the three great henges of Thornborough to the north and those on Hutton Moor to the south, accompanied by a number of other tumuli nearby.
Quernhow tomb on 1856 OS mapThe excavated monument
When Waterman and his team arrived here, the barrow “appeared as a low-spread mound, about 3ft in elevation, the exact limits of which were difficult to define,” due to large parts of it being covered over in mud that’d been dumped there by the local land-owner, aswell as erosion due to other farming or industrial activity. But once the archaeologists had stripped the centuries of soil from the damaged surface of the monument, a most impressive site emerged! At the heart of this great burial mound was found “an imposing stone cairn, more or less flat-topped and with a circular constructed face.” He (1951) continued:
“The material of the cairn was composed of cobbles or boulders, all of local geological origin, ranging in size from a few inches up to a foot in diameter or more. A stone considerably larger in size was occasionally encountered , the largest found measuring 23in by 20in and from 3in to 5in in thickness. The stones were heaped up without any deliberate attempt at producing a stable structure and used indiscriminately, irrespective of size or shape, although there was a tendency for the larger stones to occur towards the perimeter of the cairn. Since the cairn itself was built to a flat surface, and the underlying barrow-mound assumed a saucer-shaped profile, the cobbles perforce increased in depth towards the cairn face; at the very centre they were laid one, occasionally two deep, at the face three or four deep, although irregular size and placing precluded any consistency whatsoever in the work. The standard of the building in fact differed considerably throughout the structure. On the northeast and northwest the facing-stones were quite carefully laid, standing to a height of 22in, the work becoming increasingly shoddy towards the south where the construction had so deteriorated that whole sections of the facing had fallen bodily away from the cairn mass, slipping down the tail of the underlying mound…”
Plan of Quernhow
In the middle of the large cairn were found four small pits and a number of small cremations in and around them. There were also found the usual broken remains of pottery, human bones, charcoal, foods vessels and burnt pieces of oak and other vegetation. Near the centre of the cairn was a curious “four poster” of upright stones, “about 1.4ft long and rather less in breadth and thickness (which) suggest, from consideration of their obviously deliberate and careful placing, some significant function in burial ritual.” The four corners of these stones were close to the cardinal points: north, south, east and west.
References:
Waterman, D.M., “Quernhow: A Food Vessel Barrow in Yorkshire,” in Antiquaries Journal, volume 31, 1951.
An intriguing site this, as it doesn’t appear to be in the Canmore archaeological register – unless it’s the Canmore site 34750. Yet Alexander MacGregor (1937) mentions the place in his folklore study as being a site where the little people lived. Shown on the first OS-map of the region as ‘Fairyfold Hillock’, Mr MacGregor (1937) said of it:
“Near the summit of Carmylie Hill is a large barrow or tumulus, which was believed at one time by the natives to be a favourite haunt of the fairies, where, with much splendour, they held their nightly revels. It still bears the name of ‘Fairy-Folk Hillock.'”
However it seems that quarrying operations may have destroyed the site. The tomb here was probably the same one described by Mr Andrew Jervise in the Journal of the Kilkenny and South East of Ireland Archaeological Society (1864-66), where he wrote:
“Many years ago I took note of another example of these ‘footmarks,’ which was found in the parish of Carmyllie… This was discovered in the course of making agricultural improvements some thirty-five years ago, on which occasion stone coffins or cists were got, and in one of these was a bronze (?) ring, of about three inches in diameter, now said to be lost. Apart from the cists there was a rude boulder of about two tons weight; and upon the lower side of it, as my informant told me, was scooped the representation of a human foot. This too was associated with the elves; for the hillock upon which these discoveries were made was called the ‘fairies’ knowe;’ and tradition says that, but for a spirit that warned the workmen to suspend operations when they began to prepare for the foundations of the parish church, the church would have been built upon that spot!”
From Dunblane Cathedral walk straight down town along High Street, but where the road bends to cross the river, keep to your left and onto the dual carriageway. Walk straight across and along the “private” drive that leads to Kippencross House. The first 100 yards is wooded either side of you, but when you come out into the grassy open, walk on for another 100 yards or so, keeping your eyes peeled for the rise in the grassland on your right, topped with a clump of trees. This is the cairn!
Archaeology & History
This is a lovely site, perched near the crown of a small hillock, surmounted with a crown of pinus trees that would have delighted Alfred Watkins and his ley-hunters. It is a veritable faerie mound, seemingly alone amidst this modernised but well-kept gardenscape. The large tomb sits upon a small rise in the land here, where the grasslands fall to its west and northern sides with some obvious deliberation.
Kerbstones on south side
The cairn doesn’t appear to have been excavated (but I don’t have my library to hand, so could be wrong – I’ll check when I get back home) and though there’s a distinct impression of cup-marked stones close by, we couldn’t find owt in our brief bimble here. The tomb measures about 20 yards across, and rises perhaps six feet or more above the ground level. Although a little overgrown with summer herbage (mainly Urtica and friends), quite a few small stones were visible close to the surface on different parts of the mound, looking like typical cairn material; though around its mainly southern edge is a line of larger kerb stones showing the outline of what would seem to be the edge of the monument.
The cairn is definitely worth having a look at if you’re in the area. It’s certainly a beautiful little spot to sit for a while…
References:
Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments Scotland, Stirling – volume 1, HMSO: Edinburgh 1963.
Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland, Archaeological Sites and Monuments of Stirling District, Central Region, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 1979.
This is an intriguing find inasmuch as cup-marked stones are rare in this part of the British Isles. Antiquarians have noted examples of such carvings in the Cornish townships of Davidstow, Delabole, Portreath, but very few others are known about. But in the once-impressive Tregulland Burrow barrow that was found here on the south-side of the road a few hundred yards up from Cold Northcott, just next to the old township boundary line, as many as eighteen carved stones were unearthed!
Fig.2
They were all found inside different sections of the barrow, which was built on top of an earlier cairn structure, which appears to have been built upon an even earlier concentric ring of upright wooden poles. The cup-marked stones appear to have been introduced, or etched, around the time when the cairn structure was laid on top of the concentric ring of stake-holes. This “tradition” of adding cup-marked stones to cairns is a feature found at a number of sites in the northern lands of Yorkshire, Northumbria and across the Scottish counties, but such a celebrated event as this in the far southwest is highly unusual! (although the custom is pretty universal and is found, not only in the UK, but in many parts of the world).
Fig.3Fig.4
In Paul Ashbee’s (1958) excellent essay on this prehistoric tomb, he described the carvings at some considerable length — which is unusual for an archaeologist of that period — noting them as the “cup-marked and ornamented stones”. I hope that people won’t mind me repeating his lengthy notes on the relevant carved stones found in the tomb, the largest of which was on a big slab near the middle of the cairn that possessed cup-markings “and an ‘eyebrow’ motif”,* (figure 1, above) as he called it. He described the respective carvings as follows:
“From the Cairn-Ring:
1-2. A hog-backed outlined slate slab (figure 1, above). The bottom has a straight worked edge which suggests that the form was deliberate. On the inner face are four close-set cup-marks, and an ‘eyebrow’ device which has been made around a natural flaw, whilst the outer half has been formed by pecking and bashing to remove an appropriate amount of the laminated slate structure to form a depression. On the outer face there are four widely set cup-marks, one being connected by a channel to the edge of the slab…
3-4. A roughly rectangular slate slab. The upper face bears two cup-marks, one much smaller than the other, together with one abortive cup-mark, the lower a single cup-mark. Four perforations had been used to remove this slab from a parent block, the halves of these perforations gracing the upper edge. The slab was incorporated in the upper part of the cairn-ring material stacked against the largest of the sub-megalithic blocks of the cairn-ring.
5. The slab is hog-backed in outline, resembling No.1 above in general form. On the upper face, at a right-angle to the straight bottom edge, a channel had been produced by pecking, the marks of a pointed instrument being clearly discernible at the bottom of the channel. This channel extends almost from edge to edge of the slab, being narrow at the bottom and then expanding, being thus wider and then gradually tapering. Were it not asymmetrical it could be considered as a dagger representation.
6. A small block of roughly pentagonal outline, one side being irregular. The device it bears has been made by pecking an outline and removing the intervening laminated slatey rock. Found at the base of the cairn-ring on the south side.
7. A weathered pillow-like lump of a coarse sandstone-like rock. The plane face bears at least seven small ‘cup-marks.’ On other sides there are more weathered and uncertain marks which may well be natural. It was found surmounting, in a central position, the faced walling on the western side of the cairn-ring. Dr F.S. Wallis reports that: “This is evidently a sandstone rock with a large amount of quartz. This is a very generalized rock and I am afraid that it is not possible to tie it down to any particular part of Cornwall. The rock is much weathered and, judging from the print, I should say that the pits are entirely natural. Such a rock would hardly contain fossils and thus the pits could not have an organic origin.”
8. A roughly rectangular slate slab with opposing ‘cup-marks’ broken through before complete perforation. In addition there is a single cup-mark on the upper edge. (see figure 2) It was in the banked stones on the western side of the cairn-ring.
“From the soil bank:
1. An even, rectangular slab bearing a group of three cup-marks in one corner, and single cup-marks in two other corners. (see figure 3) From the outer cup-marks of the group run two channels. A channel runs from one of the solitary corner cup-marks. It was found, cup-marks and channels uppermost, almost exactly above the satellite cremation trench-grave.
2. A roughly triangular slab, bearing on its upper face a single centrally set cup-mark. Found by the cairn-ring in the eastern quadrant.
3. A small slab, of pentagonal outline, bearing a single shallow cup-mark. Found by the cairn-ring in the eastern side.
4. A thin U-shaped slab which has been battered into shape by edge chipping. A concavity has been made along the upper edge.
“From the ditch infilling:
5. A tough, quartz-veined slab with a shallow battered cup-mark. From the western side of the barrow.
6. A small, tough, even, rectangular piece of slate, bearing an abortive cup-mark. From the western side of the barrow.
7. A thin piece of slate bearing a small cup-mark set at a point where laminae of slate have left the piece. From the eastern side of the barrow.
“Unstratified:
All the “unstratified” cup-marked slabs recovered from the central disturbances, both recent and earlier, may well be derived from the destruction of the central grave arrangements.
8. A thick lozenge-outlined slab bearing one large cup-mark, and one smaller set side-by-side. (figure 4, above)
9. A roughly square-outlined slab with two cup-marks of even size set across one diagonal. (figure 5, below) One cup-mark has a smaller one close by it.
10-11. Irregular pieces of thin slate, bearing traces of perforations on their edges, one bearing cup-marks.
12. A roughly triangular slab bearing an ? unfinished cup-mark.
13. An even hexagonal slab that appears to have been, by edge trimming, worked into this form.”
Fig.5
The prolific collection of cup-marked stones in this once-impressive monument would probably indicate that the character buried here was of some significance to the local people, both to those who knew him and, evidently, in the subsequent mythologies surrounding the site (click here for the details of Tregullan Burrow barrow if you wanna know the archaeology and structure of the site). And although we find, statistically speaking, a lacking of other cup-markings in this region, it’s more than likely there are others that are hiding away amidst other old tombs and rocks…
References:
Ashbee, Paul, “The Excavation of Tregulland Burrow, Treneglos Parish, Cornwall,” in Antiquaries Journal, volume 38, 1958.
* the eyebrow motif description was used by a number of archaeo’s for sometime following publication of O.G.S. Crawford’s book, The Eye Goddess, to which the Antiquity Journal editor speculated some cup-and-rings may have owed their origin.
