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Summary

Scheduled Monuments of four bowl barrows and a disc barrow or possible hengiform monument; tradition linked the mounds with the burial of Civil War soldiers after the 1st Battle of Newbury though their origin lies in later prehistory

Associated Legal Designations or Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1012811: ROUND BARROW CEMETERY ON WASH COMMON
• Scheduled Monument 1013245: TWO BOWL BARROWS: PART OF A BARROW CEMETERY ON WASH COMMON.

Other Statuses and Cross-References

• Berkshire SMR No. (pre 2000): 01046.00.000
  
• National Monuments Record No.: SU 46 SE 5
  SU 455 647
• Old Scheduled Ancient Monument (Berkshire): BK 8
  

Monument Type(s):

• BARROW CEMETERY (Early Neolithic to Late Bronze Age - 4000 BC to 701 BC)

Full Description

There are five elements to the Wash Common barrow cemetery: four bowl barrows and a disc barrow (also described as a hengi-form monument, although its ditch is external). They have been labelled Barrows A to E from northwest to southeast. They are located on a high gravel plateau on a watershed between the Kennet and Enborne valleys. The cemetery is designated as two separate scheduled monuments <22> and the 21st century land use is a recreation area, partly under grass and partly within woodland. Each monument is further described in individual records (see MWB1551-MWB1555).

The mounds have been recognised for several centuries: Rocque's 1761 map <1> marks 'Three Burrows' on Wash Common, and one mound is clearly shown on Ballard's plan of Newbury straddling the boundary with Enborne <2><3>. The area was also known as 'Bumper's Hill' because it was on the edge of the old borough boundary, and boys were 'bumped' during the custom of beating the bounds, to impress on them the limits of their parish <23>. There is also a tradition that the mounds were erected over the bodies of soldiers killed in the 1643 First Battle of Newbury which was fought across Wash Common <4><5><10>, although Peake's 1931 gazetteer assigned them (three) to the Bronze Age <9> and he further noted that the commanders of both Civil War forces instructed people in Newbury and Enborne to bury the dead in their churchyards, which registers show was done <13>. Nevertheless, when Wash Common was enclosed in 1855 and levelling of the mounds was commenced to make a road, it was reported that human bones, buckles, buttons, bullets and cannon balls were unearthed <6> (the landowner then halted this work). Peake wrote that early in the 20th century a dedication stone was erected by the Mayor <13> apparently on the largest of the barrows, although this is not supported by mapping evidence; in the 21st century there are still two memorial stones on the eastern most barrows, part of the scheduling. Possibly these were erected when the area was dedicated as a recreation ground in 1897 [source to be confirmed by checking Newbury Weekly News]. School children from the nearby Falkland School continue the annual practice noted in the 1920s <8> of laying flowers on the mounds.

Grinsell appears to have carried out the first archaeological field survey of the five barrows <11>, although all of them are drawn on the First Edition Ordnance Survey mapping <30>. A postcard shows the scrubby nature of vegetation on the largest western bowl barrow in the first part of the 20th century <14>. OS field investigators visited in the 1960s <16><17>, and T Higgott, the curator of Newbury Museum, also made notes on the condition of the monument in 1988 when work was being carried out on the play area of the recreation ground <21>.

The only excavation known to have been undertaken within the scheduled area was conducted by the Newbury Museum Archaeological Group under the direction of R A Sheridan, in between 1967 and 1970 <18>. This involved the felling of c50 trees covering the disc barrow; one main trench was excavated from the centre of the monument to the external ditch and another section was also cut through the bank. No final report was ever produced, and the excavation archive consists of material collated by Newbury Museum in the 1980s and 1990s <19>. An interim report by Sheridan noted that the monument was definitely man-made, the ditch was continuous and the large central area was quite flat and featureless. Only two worked flints came from this sterile central area, although several pieces of worked flint were found in association with the old land surface beneath the bank. Several small 'bag-shaped' pits containing humus and burnt stones were also noted sealed by old land surfaces. The ditch's lowest layers contained numerous pieces of worked flint suggested as being contemporary to the monument, and Neolithic in date. Carbonised wood was found, although this does not appear to have been subject to any dating; there was also much burnt flint and stone but no pottery.

Although the excavation was not properly concluded, the lack of evidence for a burial (and the fact that there was no central mound as is common in disc barrows) suggests that this large circular monument could have been a ritual or ceremonial site. It seems likely to have been the focus for the later bowl barrows.

Some conservation and management work was carried out in the 1990s, although by this time the central and smallest bowl barrow appeared to have been almost levelled, and a skateboard ramp had been erected over it (later removed). Monitoring of further changes to the playground did not lead to any further archaeological discoveries <26> and other work nearby <27><28><29><30> also proved negative.

The ditches and mounds of the two easternmost barrows were transcribed from aerial photographs under English Heritage's National Mapping Programme <31>.

Sources and further reading

Related Monuments

Associated Excavations and Fieldwork

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