Europe, British Isles, South-West England, Wiltshire, Bishops Canning [Map]
Bishops Canning, Wiltshire is in Wiltshire.
Europe, British Isles, South-West England, Wiltshire, Bishops Canning, Easton Hill
Europe, British Isles, South-West England, Wiltshire, Bishops Canning, Easton Hill Long Barrow [Map]
Easton Hill Long Barrow is also in Avebury Long Barrows South.
Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine 1859 V6 Pages 317-336. Further east, on the summit of Easton Hill, are a long barrow [Easton Hill Long Barrow [Map]], and one of a fine bell-shape [Easton Hill Round Barrow [Map]].
12. In this last [Easton Hill Round Barrow [Map]], at the depth of two feet, was a grooved pin of bone two inches long, and a few scattered teeth and animal bones. At six feet was a large pile of burnt bones, probably those of a male; and below and around these, a quantity of wood ashes.
13. The long barrow [Easton Hill Long Barrow [Map]], of moderate size, ranges almost due east and west, has the usual slight trench on the north and south sides, not continued round the west or east end, which last is the highest and widest part of the mound. There were marks of former diggings at the east end, near which a large opening was made down to the natural soil. Here, were the scattered bones of four human skeletons, two adult males, and two apparently young persons. The teeth were much worn, the erosion being most marked on the outer edges of the lower, and inner edges of the upper, teeth. There were also a few chippings and fragments of Sarsen stones.
Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine 1913 V38 Pages 379-414. Bishops Cannings. 65. On Easton Down [Easton Hill Long Barrow [Map]], N. of Wansdyke. Length 132ft.; E. and W. Opened by Thurnam. It had been previously dug into, and Thurnam only found the scattered remains of four individuals (two male adults, and two young persons) near the E. end and a few chippings and fragments of sarsen stones. This barrow stands on uncultivated down, and is a conspicuous object from the road by Beckhampton. The mound has been rather disfigured by the diggings into it that have never been properly filled in; the ditches are distinct. Some rubble seems to have been taken away from the edge of the mound on the S. side. This barrow was referred to by Thurnam as "Easton Hill." O.N. 34 NE.; A.W. 11. Map of Marlborough Station; Arch. XLII. 180; W.A.M. VI. 323; Smith p. 112, VIII. E. VII. g.
For Long Barrow in Bishops Cannings parish, now destroyed, see end of this list.
Europe, British Isles, South-West England, Wiltshire, Bishops Canning, Easton Hill Round Barrow [Map]
Easton Hill Round Barrow is also in Avebury Bronze Age Barrows.
Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine 1859 V6 Pages 317-336. Further east, on the summit of Easton Hill, are a long barrow [Easton Hill Long Barrow [Map]], and one of a fine bell-shape [Easton Hill Round Barrow [Map]].
12. In this last [Easton Hill Round Barrow [Map]], at the depth of two feet, was a grooved pin of bone two inches long, and a few scattered teeth and animal bones. At six feet was a large pile of burnt bones, probably those of a male; and below and around these, a quantity of wood ashes.
13. The long barrow [Easton Hill Long Barrow [Map]], of moderate size, ranges almost due east and west, has the usual slight trench on the north and south sides, not continued round the west or east end, which last is the highest and widest part of the mound. There were marks of former diggings at the east end, near which a large opening was made down to the natural soil. Here, were the scattered bones of four human skeletons, two adult males, and two apparently young persons. The teeth were much worn, the erosion being most marked on the outer edges of the lower, and inner edges of the upper, teeth. There were also a few chippings and fragments of Sarsen stones.
Europe, British Isles, South-West England, Wiltshire, Bishops Canning, Hemp Knoll Barrow [Map]
Carbon Date. 2580BC. Late Neolithic Carbon Dates
Report: Animal bone from Pit 1 - pre-barrow occupation at Hemp Knoll [Map], Wiltshire, England.
ID: 4714, C14 ID: HAR-2997 Date BP: 4580 +/- 80, Start Date BP: 4500, End BP: 4660
OS Letter: SU, OS East: 68, OS North: 673
Archaeologist Name: M E Robertson-Mackay
Reference Name: Radiocarbon, 24, 1982, 237; Proc Prehist Soc, 46, 1980, 123-76, esp 147
Council for British Archaeology (2012) Archaeological Site Index to Radiocarbon Dates from Great Britain and Ireland [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor] https://doi.org/10.5284/1017767
Carbon Date. 2580BC. Late Neolithic Carbon Dates
Report: animal bone; from one of two Neolithic pits below the barrow.
ID: 16373, C14 ID: HAR 2997 Date BP: 4580 +/- 80, Start Date BP: 4660, End BP: 4500
Abstract: Hemp Knoll [Map]; 1978-79
Reference Name: Jordan, D, Haddon-Reece, D, Bayliss, A 1994 'Radiocarbon dates: from samples funded by English Heritage and dated before 1981', London: English Heritage
Council for British Archaeology (2012) Archaeological Site Index to Radiocarbon Dates from Great Britain and Ireland [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor] https://doi.org/10.5284/1017767
Carbon Date. 1760BC. Middle Bronze Age Carbon Dates
Report: Bone, collagen, id as scapula of Bos primigenius, from fill of Ditch 1 at Hemp Knoll [Map], Avebury, Wiltshire, England. Coll M Robertson-Mackay.
ID: 2970, C14 ID: BM-1585 Date BP: 3760 +/- 60, Start Date BP: 3700, End BP: 3820
OS Letter: SU, OS East: 69, OS North: 673
Archaeologist Name: M Robertson-Mackay
Reference Name: Radiocarbon, 24, 1982, 237
Council for British Archaeology (2012) Archaeological Site Index to Radiocarbon Dates from Great Britain and Ireland [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor] https://doi.org/10.5284/1017767
Carbon Date. 1745BC. Middle Bronze Age Carbon Dates
Report: Charcoal, id as Oak, associated with coffin of central burial at Hemp Knoll [Map], Wiltshire, England.
ID: 4716, C14 ID: NPL-139 Date BP: 3745 +/- 135, Start Date BP: 3610, End BP: 3880
OS Letter: SU, OS East: 68, OS North: 673
Archaeologist Name: M E Robertson-Mackay
Reference Name: Radiocarbon, 24, 1982, 237; Proc Prehist Soc, 46, 1980, 123-76, esp 147
Council for British Archaeology (2012) Archaeological Site Index to Radiocarbon Dates from Great Britain and Ireland [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor] https://doi.org/10.5284/1017767
Carbon Date. 1540BC. Middle Bronze Age Carbon Dates
Report: Charcoal, id as Oak, associated with coffin of central burial at Hemp Knoll [Map], Wiltshire, England.
ID: 4717, C14 ID: HAR-2998 Date BP: 3540 +/- 70, Start Date BP: 3470, End BP: 3610
OS Letter: SU, OS East: 68, OS North: 673
Archaeologist Name: M E Robertson-Mackay
Reference Name: Radiocarbon, 24, 1982, 237; Proc Prehist Soc, 46, 1980, 123-76, esp 147
Council for British Archaeology (2012) Archaeological Site Index to Radiocarbon Dates from Great Britain and Ireland [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor] https://doi.org/10.5284/1017767
Carbon Date. 1540BC. Middle Bronze Age Carbon Dates
Report: charcoal; from the north-west end of the coffin in the central grave; the adult inhumation was accompanied by a Beaker wristguard and bone toggle.
ID: 16374, C14 ID: HAR 2998 Date BP: 3540 +/- 70, Start Date BP: 3610, End BP: 3470
Abstract: Hemp Knoll [Map]; 1978-79
Reference Name: Jordan, D, Haddon-Reece, D, Bayliss, A 1994 'Radiocarbon dates: from samples funded by English Heritage and dated before 1981', London: English Heritage
Council for British Archaeology (2012) Archaeological Site Index to Radiocarbon Dates from Great Britain and Ireland [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor] https://doi.org/10.5284/1017767
Europe, British Isles, South-West England, Wiltshire, Bishops Canning, Horton Down
Europe, British Isles, South-West England, Wiltshire, Bishops Canning, Horton Down 1 Long Barrow [Map]
Horton Down 1 Long Barrow is also in Avebury Long Barrows South.
Horton Down 1 Long Barrow [Map]. Historic England:
The monument includes a long barrow set across a ridge-top on an area of gently undulating chalk downland. The monument survives as a low earthwork, rectangular in plan and orientated NNW-SSE. The barrow mound is c.40 long by 15m across and survives to a height of 0.4m. Flanking ditches, from which material used to construct the mound was quarried, run parallel to the east and west sides of the mound. These have been infilled over the years and now survive as buried features c.5m across. Large quantities of worked flint, including retouched artefacts and cores, are visible both on the surface of the mound and in the immediate area around it. These are believed to be contemporary with the construction and use of the monument.
Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine 1924 V42 Pages 49-51. Unrecorded Long Barrow on Horton Down, Bishop's Cannings [Map]1,
O.M. Sheet XXXV. N.W. Parish of Bishop's Cannings. Horton Down. Height 700. On the west side of this sheet towards the top is the well-known square earthwork (Smith EK. VII. A.), alongside which is a pond. Standing by the latter and facing 5° W. of S., at 250 yards distance, is a long barrow hitherto unrecorded. Immediately east of Brown's Barn is a modern corrugated iron erection, from here the barrow is conspicuous on the sky line looking slightly N. of E. (all bearings magnetic). The barrow is 132 feet long by 36 feet broad, and roughly 3 feet high, and is now on the open grass down. There are several slight hollows along the highest part and in the S. end is a square pit, apparently dug down to the old surface level, with two small sarsens in it. The true bearing of the long axis of the barrow is 4° west of north, practically N. and S. The northern end is if anything slightly higher than the other. There are only the slightest traces of side trenches, but the absence of these appendages is no proof that a mound is not a long barrow.
Note 1. The references throughout these notes are to the six inch Ordnance Maps.
Europe, British Isles, South-West England, Wiltshire, Bishops Canning, Horton Down Round Barrow [Map]
Horton Down Round Barrow is also in Avebury Bronze Age Barrows.
Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine 1859 V6 Pages 317-336. 14. On Horton Down, about half a mile further east, is a single barrow [Horton Down Round Barrow [Map]] of low elevation, in which, at a depth of two feet, was a simple deposit of burnt bones.
Europe, British Isles, South-West England, Wiltshire, Bishops Canning, Kitchen Barrow [Map]
Kitchen Barrow is also in Avebury Long Barrows South.
Kitchen Barrow [Map]. Historic England:
The monument includes a long barrow, orientated SW-NE and set below the crest of a steep south-facing slope. The barrow mound has maximum dimensions of 33m long by 15m wide and survives to a height of 2m when viewed from the south-west. Flanking quarry ditches run parallel and contiguous to the barrow mound. These are 5m wide and up to 0.5m deep on the east side and 1m deep to the west. Central hollows on the surface of the mound suggest the site may once have been excavated. Worked flint artefacts, probably contemporary with the construction and use of the monument, are visible on the surface of the adjacent ploughed field.
Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine 1913 V38 Pages 379-414. Bishop's Cannings. 44. "Kitchen Barrow [Map]," on Kitchen Barrow Hill, S. of Wansdyke. Length 107ft.; width at broad end 64ft.; N.E. and S.W. Opened by Thurnam, who found skeletons at the N.E. end; they seem to have been previously disturbed, but no details are given. This barrow stands at the extreme end of an outstanding spur of the down, overlooking the Vale of Pewsey. The mound is very broad at one end, and tapers off very narrow at the other. The ditches are quite distinct and untouched, but the mound is in a very untidy and disturbed state; near the wide end there has been a considerable excavation never filled in, and in it a large sarsen stone; in addition to this hole much of the material of the mound has been taken away. The Rev. A. C. Smith speaks of "much broken ground all about, and many pits, as if of hut circles." These, however, appear more like old diggings, either for hard chalk or flint, than "hut circles," and it seems probable that the material from the barrow was carted away when this digging was going on. This barrow is almost certainly the one referred to by Thurnam as "Horton." O.N. 34 NE.; Arch. XLII.; Smith p. 114, Vlll. E. VIII. h.
Europe, British Isles, South-West England, Wiltshire, Bishops Canning, Morgan's Hill [Map]
Morgan's Hill, Wiltshire [Map] is so named after a Mr. Morgan of Heddington who murdered his uncle. For this he not only hung but his body was left hanging on the hill top gibbet.
Europe, British Isles, South-West England, Wiltshire, Bishops Canning, Morgan's Hill Round Barrow 1 [Map]
Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine 1859 V6 Pages 317-336. 2. This barrow is on Morgan's Hill [Morgan's Hill Round Barrow 1 [Map]] just above Old Shepherd's Shore, close to, and on the south of, the barrier of Wansdyke. It is of the simple bowl-form and about three feet high. The turf over it was perfectly smooth and appeared never to have been disturbed. At a depth of three and a half feet, in an oval cist in the natural surface of the chalk was the skeleton of a man, about thirty years of age and probably six feet in height. The skeleton was in a contracted position, with the head to the north, the knees drawn up and the legs completely flexed behind the thighs. There was no other relic of any kind. The skull (of which four views are given1) is of full size, and had contained a brain weighing upwards of 53 oz. It approaches to the shortened-oval or brachycephalic form. The forehead is narrow but moderately full and high: the nasal bones project most abruptly. The facial bones are of full size and rugged. The ascending process of the lower jaw is broad and rectangular. The teeth are large, one molar only having been lost during life, from the effects of an alveolar abscess. Their crowns are much worn, the eroded and hollow surfaces having an oblique position. The thigh bones measured nineteen and a half, and the leg bones (tibiæ) fifteen and a half inches in length.
Note 1. We are indebted to Mr. J. B. Davis, F.S.A., for the use of these wood engravings, which are taken from the Fourth Decade of the "Crania Britannica," where a lithographed full-sized profile view of this skull is also given.
Europe, British Isles, South-West England, Wiltshire, Bishops Canning, Morgan's Hill Round Barrow 2 [Map]
Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine 1859 V6 Pages 317-336. 3. A large conical mound [Morgan's Hill Round Barrow 2 [Map]], with steep irregular sides and nearly seven feet high, on the west of Morgan's Hill, close to the foss on the north side of Wansdyke and just above its junction with the Roman road from Cunetio.2 A large shaft was sunk through the centre to the depth of seven feet, but nothing was found excepting some black wood ashes at two feet, and again at five feet. The probable conclusion is, that this was a beacon or specular mound commanding the extensive vale of the Avon, which spreads out below to the Roman Verlucio and the vicinity of Aquæ Solis. An adjacent mound of similar form may be of the same character.
Note 2. Shown in Hoare's Ancient Wilts, vol. ii. pl. 5, No. 2; and in Stukeley's Abury, pl. 10. The mound described must have been close to the gibbet seen in this last plate.
Europe, British Isles, South-West England, Wiltshire, Bishops Canning, Roughridge Hill [Map]
Europe, British Isles, South-West England, Wiltshire, Bishops Canning, Roughridge Hill Round Barrows [Map]
Roughridge Hill Round Barrows is also in Avebury Bronze Age Barrows.
Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine 1859 V6 Pages 317-336. There are several groups of barrows, mostly of small size, on the Downs to the east of Shepherd's Shore, close to Wansdyke on the north. The first of these [Shepherd's Shore Round Barrows [Map]], near the road, consists of three very small mounds, two of which had been opened before.
6. In the third, at a depth of two feet, was the skeleton of a tall female in a shallow cist, in the usual contracted posture, with the head to the north: under the turf were a few teeth of an ox. Nothing else was found.
About a quarter of a mile to the east, on Roughridge Hill [Roughridge Hill Round Barrows [Map]], are two groups, the first consisting of four, the other of three low mounds.
7. In the second of the first group, counting from the south, at the depth of a foot, was a deposit of the burnt bones of a female or young person. The other three had been previously opened by Mr. William Cunnington, and all found to cover interments after cremation.
In each of the more northernly group of three, we also found deposits of burnt bones:
8. In the first, these were at the depth of between three and four feet, mixed with a few ashes, and with fragments of sun-dried pottery, of both the coarse and finer sorts. There were also two pins of ivory, one of them tinged with bronze.
9. This yielded nothing beyond a heap of burnt bones, on the surface of the chalk.
10. In this, at a depth of two feet, was a small deposit of incinerated bones, with much burnt wood and ashes, and likewise a small cup of ornamented but coarse sun-dried pottery, and a perforated bead of bone or ivory an inch long. At a distance of two feet on the same level, was the jaw of a pig, and in another place a bone or two of an ox.
11. A single barrow on the slope of the hill about half a mile to the north of the last, (marked on the Ordnance Map, but not on those in "Ancient Wilts,") at the depth of two feet, yielded a few burnt bones, a fragment of black pottery and a tooth or two of an ox.
Europe, British Isles, South-West England, Wiltshire, Bishops Canning, Shepherd's Shore [Map]
The Wiltshire Wansdye remains highly visible in the landscape especially when it is crossing chalk downland that has little vegetation to hide it. Its date is somewhat uncertain; most sources consider it to have been constructed around 600AD give or take a hundred years either was. It was definitely constructed before the 9th century when begins to occur in charters.
It appears to start west of Savernake Forest [Map], after which it travels broadly west through Shaw Medieval Village [Map], Furze Hill [Map], Tan Hill, Wiltshire [Map], Shepherd's Shore, Wiltshire [Map], Furze Knoll [Map] after which it disappears, possibly being absorbed into the Roman Road
Europe, British Isles, South-West England, Wiltshire, Bishops Canning, Shepherd's Shore, Morgan Hill Round Barrows
Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine 1885 V22 Pages 234-238. "Barrows Opened by Mr. Cunnington near Beckhampton, 1804.
"A group of barrows near Shepherds Shore [Map]. Mr. C. opened the smallest, which contained a cist with burnt bones and a jet ornament, a bone arrow-head, a pin, &c.
"Farther to the north-west, and under Morgan's Hill, is a group of four barrows, nearly in a line; but lower down the vale are several others. Opened the second from the hill — of the Druid kind — five feet in elevation — burnt bones and a piece of slate, and a neat little urn, also several long amber beads, and two ivory or bone beads. Opened a tumulus lower down — a large rude black urn with burnt bones.
Europe, British Isles, South-West England, Wiltshire, Bishops Canning, Shepherd's Shore Long Barrow [Map]
Shepherd's Shore Long Barrow is also in Avebury Long Barrows South.
Shepherd's Shore Long Barrow [Map].
The monument includes a Neolithic Long Barrow, 650m WSW of Shepherds' Shore. It is situated on a false crest overlooking a slight valley to the south and west. The barrow is aligned ENE-WSW, is oval in shape and lies about 500m south of the Wansdyke. The barrow mound has been reduced by cultivation over the years but survives as a visible earthwork measuring 35m long and 16m wide. It stands up to 0.2m high. Originally, it stood at least 1m high and is known from partial excavation in the early 1800s to have contained both inhumation and cremation burials. Unusually, it appears that the barrow mound was constructed without flanking quarry ditches. Chalk and turf was gathered from nearby fields to construct the mound and use was made of the natural contours of the slope to enhance its profile.Historic England.
Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine 1859 V6 Pages 317-336. 1. The first is close to the London road at New Shepherd's Shore [Shepherd's Shore Long Barrow [Map]], and immediately adjacent to the remarkable triplet barrow, examined in 1804 and 1814 by Mr. Cunnington and Sir R. C. Hoare, the curious proportions of which are in course of gradual obliteration, by the foot-paths and trackways made across them to the adjacent farmstead and cottages.1 That we opened in 1855 is a bowl-shaped barrow about five and a half feet in height. In the centre, in a shallow cist scooped out of the chalk rock, was a deposit of burnt human bones, without an admixture of charcoal, or any object of art or other relic. It may be observed that when the other barrows of this group, including two of those forming the triplet, were opened, they were also found to cover interments after cremation.
Note 1. In June 1852, through the kindness of Mr. William Cunnington, the writer witnessed the large but unsuccessful excavation made in the large mound, the more northern of this triplet, which had previously baffled Sir R. C. Hoare. See Ancient Wilts, vol. II. p. 92. The external form of these curiously arranged barrows is well described by Mr. Falkner of Devizes, in the Archæologia, 1847, vol. XXXII. p. 457.
Europe, British Isles, South-West England, Wiltshire, Bishops Canning, Shepherd's Shore Round Barrows [Map]
Shepherd's Shore Round Barrows is also in Avebury Bronze Age Barrows.
Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine 1859 V6 Pages 317-336. There are several groups of barrows, mostly of small size, on the Downs to the east of Shepherd's Shore, close to Wansdyke on the north. The first of these [Shepherd's Shore Round Barrows [Map]], near the road, consists of three very small mounds, two of which had been opened before.
6. In the third, at a depth of two feet, was the skeleton of a tall female in a shallow cist, in the usual contracted posture, with the head to the north: under the turf were a few teeth of an ox. Nothing else was found.
About a quarter of a mile to the east, on Roughridge Hill [Roughridge Hill Round Barrows [Map]], are two groups, the first consisting of four, the other of three low mounds.
7. In the second of the first group, counting from the south, at the depth of a foot, was a deposit of the burnt bones of a female or young person. The other three had been previously opened by Mr. William Cunnington, and all found to cover interments after cremation.
In each of the more northernly group of three, we also found deposits of burnt bones:
8. In the first, these were at the depth of between three and four feet, mixed with a few ashes, and with fragments of sun-dried pottery, of both the coarse and finer sorts. There were also two pins of ivory, one of them tinged with bronze.
9. This yielded nothing beyond a heap of burnt bones, on the surface of the chalk.
10. In this, at a depth of two feet, was a small deposit of incinerated bones, with much burnt wood and ashes, and likewise a small cup of ornamented but coarse sun-dried pottery, and a perforated bead of bone or ivory an inch long. At a distance of two feet on the same level, was the jaw of a pig, and in another place a bone or two of an ox.
11. A single barrow on the slope of the hill about half a mile to the north of the last, (marked on the Ordnance Map, but not on those in "Ancient Wilts,") at the depth of two feet, yielded a few burnt bones, a fragment of black pottery and a tooth or two of an ox.
Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine 1885 V22 Pages 234-238. "Barrows Opened by Mr. Cunnington near Beckhampton, 1804.
"A group of barrows near Shepherds Shore [Map]. Mr. C. opened the smallest, which contained a cist with burnt bones and a jet ornament, a bone arrow-head, a pin, &c.
"Farther to the north-west, and under Morgan's Hill, is a group of four barrows, nearly in a line; but lower down the vale are several others. Opened the second from the hill — of the Druid kind — five feet in elevation — burnt bones and a piece of slate, and a neat little urn, also several long amber beads, and two ivory or bone beads. Opened a tumulus lower down — a large rude black urn with burnt bones.