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Monument Types

• FINDSPOT (EARLY MESOLITHIC to EARLY IRON AGE - 10000 BC to 701 BC)
• MOUND (EARLY NEOLITHIC to LATE IRON AGE - 4000 BC to 42 AD)
• ROUND BARROW (EARLY NEOLITHIC to PRE CONQUEST - 4000 BC to 1065 AD)
• MOTTE (MEDIEVAL - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)

Associated Events

• Ground Penetrating Radar Survey, Crook Barrow Hill, Worcester (Ref: WSM42351)

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument

Full description

Placename - Ole English Beorg suffixed to British 'crooka', both alike meaning barrow. [1]

A large elliptical mound with artificial top; its character and origin are unknown. [2]

'Reputed to be sepulchral, no evidence adduced in support of this theory'. [3]

'Looks much more like a motte than barrow'. [4]

Apparently tumular, 512 yards in circumference. Elliptical, rises 50 foot, sides slope steeply. Summit is 23 paces wide at the ends and 38 in middle, orientated east - west, never excavated. Looks more like motte than barrow. [5]

Flint scraper. [6][7]

Mentioned in land charter 980. [9]

Desk Based Assessment 1990. [10]

Della Hooke in The Landscape of Anglo Saxon England states "The name Crookbarrow Hill contains the elements cruc, a British word meaning 'a barrow, a tumulus'; and the Old English beorg, meaning 'barrow'. This distinctively-shaped hill was a local landmark and was seen as 'barrow-shaped' by the Anglo-Saxon speaking inhabitants of the County, in the 7th century and later." Other British place-name elements are found in Worcestshire place-names (Hook 1998, 3-4). [11]

A British Geological Survey 1993 shows the ovoid area of Crookbarrow Hill as "made ground" overlying Twyning Mudstone Formation (part of Mercian Mudstone Group). [12]

Hal Dalwood comments: 1) Hooke points out that the placename element 'cruc' indicates that a hill looked like a burial mound to the local British speaking inhabitants, as well as the Anglo-Saxons. She cites also Crutch Hill, north of Droitwich; this is also a "barrow-shaped" hill (Hooke, 1998, fig1).

2) The name refers to the shape of the hill rather than the function. The Anglo-Saxon word 'hlaw' (now found as the placename element "low") seems to have had a more narrowly-defined sense of known burial mound/barrow, rather than just "barrow-shaped".

3) The fact of the British place-name element 'cruc' in the name must mean that this landmark was recognised as barrow-shaped in the period before the 7th century and by inference much earlier (other placenames with British place-name elements include Malvern and Bredon.

4) The combination of the place-name and the geological survey information indicate that Crookbarrow is a large artifical mound (c350m x 250m) and that it was built in the early medeival period at the latest. A pagan Anglo-Saxon barrow is a possiblity (cf Taplow, Buckinghamshire), which are sometimes quite large, but Crookbarrow is outside the central area of pagan Anglo-Saxon settlement. A prehistoric monumental mound seems more likely. The type site is Silbury Hill (Wiltshire) which is much larger, but EH list a total of four examples in the Monument Class Description for monumental mounds. [12]

Ground Penetrating Radar survey in early 2000s showed that there are sub surface structural remains on the top of the hill. The only results however are two hand drawn illustrations, that show existence of buried structures on the top of the hill but does not provide description, intepretation or actual data. [13]

A WWII Observation post was present on the top of the hill. [14]

Also mentioned in source [15].

Aerial photographs. [8][16]

Geology map shows the hill to be an artificial deposit - made ground. [17]

This record includes National Record of the Historic Environment Information provided by Historic England on 9th April 2019 licensed under the Open Government Licence: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/ [18]

There is no trace of an earthwork on Cruckbarrow Hill. The slopes shown on the OS 6" and 25" plans are merely a lynchet associated with a modern hedge, which encircles the foot of the hill. Although there seems to be some local speculation that the hill itself, a steep- sided and conspicuous eminence, may be artificial, there is no doubt that it is in fact natural. [Field Investigators Comments: F1 GHP 11-MAR-66][18]

Sources and further reading

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