Hanging Grimston barrow group: a bowl barrow 650m south west of Thixendale Grange

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1008481
Date first listed:: 09-Sep-1958

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1008481
Date first listed:: 09-Sep-1958
Date of most recent amendment:: 18-Aug-1994

Location

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: North Yorkshire (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Thixendale
National Grid Reference:: SE 81233 60691

Reasons for Designation

Bowl barrows, the most numerous form of round barrow, are funerary monuments dating from the Late Neolithic period to the Late Bronze Age, with most examples belonging to the period 2400-1500 BC. They were constructed as earthen or rubble mounds, sometimes ditched, which covered single or multiple burials. They occur either in isolation or grouped as cemeteries and often acted as a focus for burials in later periods. Often superficially similar, although differing widely in size, they exhibit regional variations in form and a diversity of burial practices. There are over 10,000 surviving bowl barrows recorded nationally (many more have already been destroyed), occurring across most of lowland Britain. Often occupying prominent locations, they are a major historic element in the modern landscape and their considerable variation of form and longevity as a monument type provide important information on the diversity of beliefs and social organisations amongst early prehistoric communities. They are particularly representative of their period and a substantial proportion of surviving examples are considered worthy of protection.

Although this barrow has been partially altered by agricultural activity, it is still visible and was also comparatively well documented during a campaign of fieldwork in the 19th century. Further evidence of the structure of the mound, the surrounding ditch, grave pits and burials will survive.

The monument is one of a closely associated group of barrows which have further associations with broadly contemporary boundary earthworks in the vicinity of Hanging Grimston. Similar groups of monuments are also known from other parts of the Wolds and from the southern edge of the North York Moors. Such associations between monuments offer important scope for the study of the division of land for social, ritual and agricultural purposes in different geographical areas during the prehistoric period. Additionally, some of the barrows in the Hanging Grimston area are distributed parallel to a line later adopted by a Roman road; this distribution implies a degree of continuity of land divisions from at least the Early Bronze Age into the Roman period.

Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow which is one of several situated on the south eastern spur of Deepdale Wold. This barrow also lies 50m east of the later Roman road between Malton and Brough; the distribution of Neolithic and Bronze Age burial mounds parallel to the road is evidence that the Romans were continuing to use an established prehistoric route across the Wolds.

Although altered by agricultural activity, the barrow is still visible as a flinty mound 1m high and 25m in diameter, its height being accentuated by its location on a slight natural rise. A ditch of 28m diameter surrounds the mound and, although it has become infilled over the years and is no longer visible at ground level, this ditch has been identified on aerial photographs. The barrow was recorded and partially excavated by J R Mortimer in 1864 and again in 1868; two graves, each about 0.5m deep and containing two burials, were found along with a burial placed beneath the mound on a stone floor.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features, considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 20573
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Mortimer, J R , Forty Years Researches in British and Saxon Burial Mounds of East Yorkshire, (1905)
Other
Stoertz C, RCHME unpublished survey (1992), 1992,

Legal

This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.