| Summary : A bowl barrow, one of a pair located side by side, just south of Bokerley Dyke and immediately adjacent to Grim's Ditch. Listed by RCHME as Pentridge 33 and by Grinsell as Pentridge 12, it was described by RCHME as a well-preserved mound 58 feet in diameter and 6 feet high, surrounded by a ditch 12 feet wide and 1.5 feet deep. Both of the barrows had been dug into in the past. It seems quite likley that they are to be identified with two barrows excavated by Hoare and Cunnington in the early 19th century. This identification is by no means certain, but this pair seem the most plausible candidates among the known barrows. If the identification is correct, this barrow, the larger of the pair, proved to contain "two skeletons, and several instruments of iron, viz. a lance-head, two knives, and an article of bone". These would appear to represent interments of Saxon date, probably dating from the late 5th to early 8th century. They may be the primary interments, but it is more likely that they represent secondary, intrusive interments in an earlier, Bronze Age, barrow. Grinsell lists the barrow excavated by Hoare and Cunnington as Pentridge 13b, declaring it unlocated. See Bowen (1990) for a discussion of the relationship between the linear earthworks and the barrows in this area. |
More information : (SU 05361811 & SU 05381811) Tumuli (NR). (1)
Two bowl barrows lie close together on Blagdon Hill, just south of Bokerley Dyke. Both have been dug into in the past. (They may be
two that were excavated by Colt Hoare. See SU 01 NW 86). One, at SU 05371811, is well preserved, with a diameter of 58 feet.
It is 6 feet high and has a surrounding ditch 12 feet wide by 1 1/2 feet deep. The other, at SU 05391811, is overlain by Grim's Ditch on its north side. It is 38 feet in diameter by 3 1/2 feet high. (2)
A bowl barrow, one of a pair located side by side, just south of Bokerley Dyke and immediately adjacent to Grim's Ditch. Listed by RCHME as Pentridge 33 and by Grinsell as Pentridge 12, it was described by RCHME as a well-preserved mound 58 feet in diameter and 6 feet high, surrounded by a ditch 12 feet wide and 1.5 feet deep. Both of the barrows had been dug into in the past. It seems quite likley that they are to be identified with two barrows excavated by Hoare and Cunnington in the early 19th century. This identification is by no means certain, but this pair seem the most plausible candidates among the known barrows. If the identification is correct, this barrow, the larger of the pair, proved to contain "two skeletons, and several instruments of iron, viz. a lance-head, two knives, and an article of bone". These would appear to represent interments of Saxon date. They may be the primary interments, but it is more likely that they represent secondary, intrusive interments in an earlier, Bronze Age, barrow. Grinsell lists the barrow excavated by Hoare and Cunnington as Pentridge 13b, declaring it unlocated. See Bowen (1990) for a discussion of the relationship between the linear earthworks and the barrows in this area. (2-7)
The grave goods comprising an iron 'lance head', two knives and a bone item suggest a late 5th-early 8th century date for the burials. (8) |