| Summary : Possible Bronze Age round barrow, listed by Grinsell as Amesbury 24 and located within Vespasian's Camp (SU 14 SW 69). Excavation, probably in the 1740s, which recovered finds - possibly a cremation, a large grooved dagger and a bronze pin - probably occurred during the course of landscaping. The present feature, tentatively identified as the barrow site, is a level platform located at a point where the series of 18th-century walks and rides within the hillfort coverge. |
More information : (SU 14624166) Tumulus (AT). (1)
Amesbury 24. A (?) bowl barrow, no dimensions given.
It was opened in 1770-71 and ashes (?cremation), a large grooved dagger and a ring-headed bronze pin were found.
It is uncertain whether this is a barrow, an enclosure (Amesbury
19a in Grinsell's list of enclosures and hill forts), or an enclosure surrounding a barrow.
(Grinsell has not seen the site). (2)
The feature shown on OS 25" is a circular platform about 50m in diameter and up to 0.8m high. A map of 1726 shows a series of strip fields covering the area and it seems possible that the
finds of 1770-71 were first unearthed by ploughing, and that the
barrow would be much denuded and possibly destroyed. This would support the present appearance which is that of a possibly 18th-19th century ornamental feature though in all probability
constructed on the site of the barrow. (3)
Amesbury 24 is one of two barrows present within Vespasian's Camp (SU 14 SW 69) and was opened in 1770 during the course of landscaping for Amesbury Park (SU 14 SW 261). The finds recovered have been described by Goddard, who also originally recorded the barrow as Amesbury 24. (4). This barrow is no longer visible but there are suggestions that it was situated at SU 14614167 which lies within a circular level platform c. 50m in diameter and is where the series of walks and rides within the hillfort converge. This suggests that this is the product of mid-eighteenth century landscaping. (5)
The barrow falls within the area mapped from aerial photographs by both RCHME's Salisbury Plain Training Area NMP and EH's Stonehenge WHS Mapping Project. It has been included on the survey maps, but is covered by trees, and no further information could be added from aerial photographic evidence. (7)
The idea that the barrow was excavated in 1770 arose from a misunderstanding. It is also doubtful whether this is a barrow site, as the existing circular platform was built, probably in the 1740s, at the meeting point of two axes of the Amesbury Abbey park and garden design; the existence of a barrow at this point would therefore probably have been only a coincidence. The finds referred to by previous authorities were first publicly exhibited in 1771; they have subsequently been lost. (8)
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