| Summary : A Bronze Age bowl barrow survives as earthworks. It has been recorded as part of the Normanton Down (Centre) barrow group (Monument Number 219537) and forms part of the Normanton Down round barrow cemetery (Monument Number 1531088). The round barrow was excavated in the early 19th century by Sir Richard Colt Hoare (Barrow 156), who found a primary inhumation with a variety of grave goods, including: a spherical cover of thin sheet gold; a grape cup; a collared urn; shale beads and pendant, and four amber pendants (in Devizes Museum). The round barrow was listed as Wilsford 7 by Goddard and subsequently by Grinsell. It was surveyed at a scale of 1:1000 in April 2010 as part of English Heritage's Stonehenge WHS Landscape Project. The surviving earthworks have an overall diameter of 41m and comprise a central mound which is surrounded by a ring ditch, with a flanking outer bank extant around most of its northern half. The mound stands 2.9m high: its top measures 10m and its base, at the bottom of the ditch, is 29.5m in diameter. A slight hollow in its summit may represent Cunnington's excavations and a break in slope approximately half way down implies two phases of construction. The ditch measures 8m wide and the outer bank is a maximum of 4m wide. The outer bank and lip of the ring ditch are overlain by the outer bank of Wilsford 6 (Monument Number 943061) to the north-west, implying that Wilsford 6 is later. The outer bank has also been damaged by placement of modern fences. |
More information : `E' - SU 11794123; Wilsford 7, a ditched bowl barrow 99ft in diameter and 8ft high. Wessex grave 72. (1) Excavations by Colt Hoare (Barrow 156) located a primary inhumation with a grape cup, amber pendants, shale beads, including a double axe bead, gold spherical beads, encrinites (? from the Frome area) and a richly decorated collared urn at the feet which perhaps contained a food offering. Colt Hoare described this, apparently in error, as a bell barrow. (2) Finds in Devizes Museum 1080-1058. (3)
Wilsford 7. A bowl barrow with a ditch and almost destroyed outer bank. Resurveyed at 1:2500 (4)
Originally recorded as Wilsford 7 by Goddard. (5)
The barrow is visible as an earthwork on aerial photographs, and has been mapped by both RCHME's Salisbury Plain Training Area NMP and EH's Stonehenge WHS Mapping Project. (7-8)
The Bronze Age bowl barrow referred to above (1-8) was surveyed at a scale of 1:1000 in April 2010 as part of English Heritage's Stonehenge WHS Landscape Project. It has been recorded as part of the Normanton Down (Centre) barrow group (Monument Number 219537) and forms part of the Normanton Down round barrow cemetery (Monument Number 1531088). The surviving earthworks have an overall diameter of 41m and comprise a central mound which is surrounded by a ring ditch, with a flanking outer bank extant around most of its northern half. The mound stands 2.9m high: its top measures 10m and its base, at the bottom of the ditch, is 29.5m in diameter. A slight hollow in its summit may represent Cunnington's excavations and a break in slope approximately half way down implies two phases of construction. The ditch measures 8m wide and the outer bank is a maximum of 4m wide. The outer bank and lip of the ring ditch are overlain by the outer bank of Wilsford 6 (Monument Number 943061) to the north-west, implying that Wilsford 6 is later. The outer bank has also been damaged by placement of modern fences. (9) |