| Summary : A group of four Bronze Age round barrows (Grinsell's Winterbourne Monkton 1 and 2, and Avebury 44a and b) inside the area of the Windmill Hill Neolithic causewayed enclosure (SU 07 SE 22). One of these mounds may also have borne the windmill which gave the hill its name. The barrows were included within the 1990 RCHME survey of Windmill Hill. See the archive report for further details. Either or both of Winterbourne Monkton 1 and 2 was/were excavated before 1849, yielding seven skeletons, perhaps Saxon secondary interments, plus a grape cup and a stone battle axe. Winterbourne Monkton 2, also known as Picket Barrow, was the scene of a small rescue excavation in 1935 after an urn was exposed by rabbit burrowing. In addition to the pottery vessel and the cremation it contained, finds included 3 stone axes, a bronze dolphin brooch of Roman date, Roman potsherds and a perforated macehead of sarsen. One of these barrows (or none of them) may have been the barrow opened by William Stukeley in the early 18th century. Stukeley seems to have found a collared urn standing upside down over a cremation. |
More information : ('A': SU 08717140; 'B': SU 08667137; 'C': SU
08637135; 'D' SU 08607130) Tumuli (NR) (1)
Three bowl and one bell barrow on Windmill Hill:
('A') Winterbourne Monkton 1: a ditched bowl barrow, 30 paces in diameter by 6ft high.
('B') Winterbourne Monkton 2: a bell barrow, known as 'Picket
Barrow'; mound 80ft in diameter by 8ft, high, narrow sloping berm 10ft wide, ditch 10ft wide by 3ft deep. The ditch was
cleared out in 1939 and contained one axe of Gp VII (Graig
Lwyd) (P 139 (3)), one of Gp VIII (P 142 (3)) and one of Gp XI
(P 141 (3)). The axes went to Avebury Museum (2).
('C') Avebury 44a; a bowl barrow, 20 paces in diameter by 6ins high. On arable.
('D') Avebury 44b; a bowl barrow, 20 paces by 6ins high. On
arable.
Before 1849 (4) a barrow was opened on Windmill Hill, probably Winterbourne Monkton 1 or 2 (2) from which came a grape-cup and perforated battle-axe or axe hammer of stone from Cwm Mawr (Shropshire) (P 295 (3)), now in Devizes Museum (5) Wessex grave 45 (6).
It is uncertain from which barrow on Windmill Hill (2) came the seven skeletons described by Merewether (4).
Stukeley (7) opened a barrow on the top of the hill and
discovered an urn containing a cremation. (2-7)
"A": A ditched bowl barrow 38.0m in overall diameter with a 2.2m high mound and 0.3m deep ditch. Mutilated.
"C": A bowl barrow up to 19.0m in diameter and 0.4m high.
"D": A bowl barrow 15.0m in diameter and 0.3m high.
Resurveyed at 1:2500. (8)
These barrows were among the earthworks surveyed during RCHME field investigation of Windmill Hill in 1990. Details as follows:
A - Grinsell's Winterbourne Monkton 1, SU 08707140 - a bowl barrow c34m in diameter surviving to a height of 1.75m and surrounded by a ditch 5m wide and up to 0.4m deep. A partial break and ledge c0.5m from the summit suggests that the present mound profile, if not original, has seen some alteration. This may be the site of the mill, mentioned by Smith.
B - Grinsell's Winterbourne Stoke 2, SU 08667137 - described by Grinsell as a bell barrow, the mound, c3.0m high and c 22m in diameter, is separated from an enclosing ditch by a berm 4m wide. The ditch which varies between 2-5m in width is up to 1m deep and has numerous causeways along its length. It impinges upon the line of the middle circuit of the neolithic enclosure and is further overlain by the Winterbourne Monkton - Avebury parish boundary bank along its southern sector.
C - Grinsell's Avebury 44a, SU 08637135 - a badly plough damaged bowl barrow now surviving as a low sub-circular mound 20m in diameter standing to a height of 0.5m and overlying the line of the middle circuit of the causewayed enclosure. No trace of a surrounding ditch is visible.
D - Grinsell's Avebury 44b, SU 08607130 - a bowl barrow again badly damaged by ploughing, and surviving as a low circular mound 0.3m high and 17m in diameter. (9)
Documentary sources dealing with the round barrows on Windmill Hill were examined as part of the RCHME project on Industry and Enclosure in the Neolithic.
Winterbourne Monkton 1 appears most likely to be Smith's (10a) barrow 'b', described as "a large bowl-shaped barrow, somewhat flat on the top, where there is a large hole...", and Goddard's (10b) Winterbourne Monkton 1.
Winterbourne Monkton 2, also known as Picket Barrow, appears to be Smith's barrow 'c', described as "a large barrow, bowl-shaped, very tall and big;...opened at the top and side...". This is Goddard's Winterbourne Monkton 2. A small rescue excavation occurred in 1935 after an urn was exposed by rabbit burrowing, and subsequently the ditch was cleared as part of Alexander Keiller's plans to display the Windmill Hill earthworks to the public. In addition to the pottery vessel and the cremation it contained, finds included 3 stone axes, a bronze dolphin brooch of the early Roman period, Romano-British potsherds, and a perforated mace-head of sarsen.
There is evidence that either or both of Winterbourne Monkton 1 and 2 was excavated before 1849, yielding seven skeletons (possibly Saxon inhumations inserted into the mound?), a grape cup and a stone battle axe. As for the windmill after which the hill is named, the Alexander Keiller archive (held at the Keiller Museum, Avebury) contains information suggesting that it stood on either Winterbourne Monkton 1 or 2.
Avebury 44a appears to be Smith's barrow 'l', described as a "large, wide barrow, so flat from repeated ploughings as to be almost indistinguishable...".
Avebury 44b appears to be Smith's barrow 'm', described as "a very wide low barrow, very nearly obliterated by the plough...".
Authority 7 refers to the barrow opened by Stukeley. The Ordnance Survey investigator assumed it to be one of the four within the enclosure, though in reality it could be any of those on the hill. Stukeley appears to have found a collared urn standing upside down over a cremation, within a hole dug into the chalk. Note also that Merewether (4) refers to Colt Hoare opening barrows on Windmill Hill, though Colt Hoare appears not to mention any such digging himself. See archive report for a full discussion of the Windmill Hill barrows. (10)
The four barrows described by the previous authorities were mapped from aerial photographs. (11-13)
The north-eastern most barrow is visible on lidar as a mound with a central depression. The feature was mapped as part of the Avebury WHS Lidar and NMP Review.
(14) |