| Summary : Two bowl barrows, known as Butt Mound and Folk Moot, situated in Butt Lees approximately 250 metres and 330 metres west of St Denys' Church. Butt Mound bowl barrow, which has a mound which survives to a height of nearly 1 metre, was formerly circular but has been curtailed slightly on the north side and now measures 12 metres by 9.5 metres. The encircling quarry dicth is no longer visible above the ground but is thought to survive as a buried feature. Folk Moot bowl barrow has a mound which survives to a height of over 2 metres. Formerly circular in shape, the mound has been curtailed slightly on the north side and now measures 19 metres by 16 metres. The encircling quarry ditch has been largely infilled and is now visible as a shallow depression up to 8 metres wide on the north and north east sides of the mound; elsewhere it will survive as a buired feature. Limited archaeological excavation of the mound in 1933 revealed pottery fragments thought to be Middle Bronze Age in date, and burnt stones in the upper part of the mound indicating that it was later reused as a base for bonfires. The barrows are two of a group of four mounds which were recorded in Butt Lees in the early 20th century. They appear to represent the remains of a Bronze Age barrow cemetery which, in the early medieval period, served to mark the boundary between the villages of Silkby and Willoughby. The surviving mounds are thought to have been reused as archery butts in the medieval and post-medieval periods. The Folk Moot may also have been reused as a beacon or as a meeting place for village festivities. Scheduled. |
More information : [TF 0546 4298] Butt Mound [G.T.]; [TF 0537 4298] Folk Moot [T.1.]. (1)
In the field, Butt Lees, are three mounds, visited October 27, 1929.
Butt Mound is round and flattened, about 12 paces across and 2 ft
high. It was partially examined in 1933. A few scraps of coarse
pottery, recovered from near the original ground level in the middle,
might be Anglo-Saxon ware, though an Iron Age date is not impossible.
Folk Moot is round on the whole, 21 paces across and 5 ft high, with
a depression over most of the top some 1 ft 6 in deep. On the north
side the mound is nearly straight and has a slight ditch. At ['A'] TF
05314304 is a third mound, slightly damaged, 7 paces across and 2 ft
high. (2-4)
Published survey (25") of Butt Mound and Folk Moot revised. Mound
`A', TF 0529 4302, surveyed at 1:2500.
There is insufficient evidence to classify any of these works,
adjacent rig and furrow appears to post-date them all. See
TF 04 SE/7 for 1:2500 surveys. (5)
The field in which these features are is now ploughed, but both
named mounds are left grass covered. The ploughing against Folk Moot
has encroached on the ditch leaving the mound with an apparent but
not actual square plan. The mound `A' is ploughed and shows as a
slightly elevated, (0.1m.) yellowish patch with similarly coloured
lines approaching from the south and east, suggesting that it was
probably part of an enclosure bank, and not worthy of publication.
(6)
TF 052 429; TF 053 429 and TF 054 429. Site of chapel and two mounds
in Butt Lees. Scheduled no. LI/78. (7)
The two mounds, Folk Moot and Butt Mound were both seen as
earthworks and mapped from poor quality air photographs.
Centred at:-TF 0537 4298 and TF 0546 4298.
The mound A could not be identified, however a slight field bank,
as suggested by Authority 6, was mapped running eastwards from its
recorded location (see TF 04 SE 40).
(Morph No. LI.843.6.1-2)
This description is based on data from the RCHME MORPH2 database.
(8) |