More information : [ST 31615791] Walborough [T.I.] Tumulus [GT] (1)
[ST 31745819] Tumulus [GT]
[Shown but not described on O.S. 6", 1962] (2)
Both mounds are shown as barrows by Colt-Hoare, in 1821 (3)
having been excavated by Skinner in 1819 (4). The northernmost
mound was 60-70 feet in circumference and 4-5 feet high. No
evidence of a cist was found but at the base of the mound a
small potsherd and charcoal were found and unburnt bones
elsewhere. This was taken by Skinner as indicating a primary
cremation and secondary inhumation. The southern barrow was
opened with a Mr. Crocker but the exact details of the excavation
were not found in Skinner's voluminous MSS. Scarth may be
referring to this barrow when he mentions that letters by Skinner
on a barrow-dig hereabouts are in the Bath Lit. &, Sci. Inst.
Library (5). Knight states that it is supposed to have been in
one of these two barrows that the Rev. David Williams, c.1826,
found a bronze ring, inscribed OR, four bronze buttons and
fourteen small ten-sided red glass beads. All are in Glastonbury
Museum and dated as 16th c. (6) It is possibly this area that is
indicated by a reference in Phelps (7) to a barrow being levelled
in the common field of Uphill, 1815, when four inhumation burials
were found and apparently three cremation burials. 'Many other
barrows' in the vicinity were being obliterated by cultivation.
Crawford in 1929, (8) stated that the northernmost mound was not
a barrow but a residual mound from strip-ploughing but Skinner's
excavation throws some doubt on this identification. (3-8)
Walborough, the southern barrow, is a well preserved bowl
barrow 1.5m high it has no visible ditch (See G.P. AO/65/42/3)
The northern mound is a natural hillock on the top of which at
ST 3174658189, is a disturbed patch bounded on the west by a low
crescentic bank, the circumference appears to have been the same
as that given by Skinner, and it may prove to be the remains of
an almost destroyed barrow (See G.Ps AO/65/42/1 & 2).
Grinsell considers a low, roughly circular platform against the
west wall of St. Nicholas (old) Church, at ST 3157758383, to be a
probable barrow. It is only 0.3m high and has a very flat profile
that makes this identification rather suspect (see G.Ps
AO/64/389/7 and 8).
E.K. Tratman lists a barrow, 18 ft diameter: 1 1/2 ft. high at
ST 31835823, but Grinsell regards it as natural. Tratman seems to
be referring to a shallow hole, surrounded by upcast, on the top
of a natural hillock. It appears to be the result of
comparatively recent digging. (9)
ST 316579 Round barrow scheduled. (10)
The southern Bronze Age bell barrow referred to above (1, 9-10) is visible as an earthwork on aerial photographs. (11-12) |