| Summary : A Bronze Age bowl barrow, listed by Grinsell as Cherhill 10, "excavated" in 1849 by Merewether, who found a primary cremation deposit. Earlier digging in 1833 had uncovered two extended inhumations, presumably Saxon, accompanied by a knife, some beads, and a metal workbox with a chain. Prior to boundary changes, the barrow was listed as Yatesbury 4. It remains extant as an earthwork, though it is being ploughed. |
More information : NB this barrow was previously recorded as part of SU 07 SE 10. That record should be consulted for some additional information and sources.
SU 07067095: a bowl barrow, listed by Grinsell as Cherhill 10 (and previously listed by Goddard and others as Yatesbury 4 prior to boundary changes). It was dug into on August 4th 1849 by J Merewether (who had also been digging at Silbury Hill that day), resuting in the discovery of a cremation deposit beneath the mound. 16 years previously, in reducing the height of the mound, two secondary extended inhumations, probably Saxon, had been discovered, accompanied by a knife, some beads, and a metal workbox with a chain. Merewether's account, in which the barrow is numbered no. 17, is as follows:
"Having obtained permission of the proprietor...we proceeded at as early an hour as our party could reach the spot...and with anticipations the most encouraging, as they [this barrow and SU 07 SE 10] were distinguished by traditions which ranked them highly in the estimation of the inhabitants. They had been at least 20 ft high; their bases were still of an extent to admit of such a proportinate height. henry Shergold, the man who had been employed to lower them, being fortunately within reach, was sent for, and gave us the following account as to the first of the two which we examined, beingthat towards Avebury. He said "He had cut it down a matter of 9ft, throwing the earth on the sides, sixteen years ago. there was a little box of metal 3 inches long; it had a lid at one end, and a chain fixed in the middle, and it had been fastened to the end where it opened; it was round. Abut a yard deep, there were three beads (terra cotta, one was produced), as big as his finger round; a knife fit to stick a pig, and two skeletons lying at full length". At a depth of 8ft in this barrow, we came to a large quantity of very black substance, like charcoal, or rather burnt straw; numerous bits of bone of the various kinds, fragments of pottery, &c, and a large cist containing a considerable quantity of burnt human bones."
In 1973, Ordnance Survey field investigation recorded the barrow as a mound up to 38 metres in diameter and 1.7 metres high. Air photographs show that the mound was under the plough by 1971. (1-7) |