Group of four square barrows on Westwood Common, 200m north west of Blackmill

Reasons for Designation

Square barrows are funerary monuments of the Middle Iron Age, most examples dating from the period between c.500 BC and c.50 BC. The majority of these monuments are found in the area between the River Humber and the southern slopes of the North Yorkshire Moors but a wider distribution has also been identified, principally through aerial photography, spreading through the river valleys of the Midlands and south Essex. Around 200 square barrow cemeteries have been recorded; in addition, a further 250 sites consisting of single barrows or small groups of barrows have been identified. Square barrows, which may be square or rectangular, were constructed as earthen mounds surrounded by a ditch and covering one or more bodies. Slight banks around the outer edge of the ditch have been noted in some examples. The main burial is normally central and carefully placed in a rectangular or oval grave pit, although burials placed on the ground surface below the mound are also known. A number of different types of burial have been identified, accompanied by grave goods which vary greatly in range and type. The most elaborate include the dismantled parts of a two-wheeled vehicle placed in the grave with the body of the deceased. Ploughing and intensive land use since prehistoric times have eroded and levelled most square barrows and very few remain as upstanding monuments, although the ditches and the grave pits, with their contents, will survive beneath the ground surface. The different forms of burial and the variations in the type and range of artefacts placed in the graves provide important information on the beliefs, social organisation and material culture of these Iron Age communities and their development over time. All examples of square barrows which survive as upstanding earthworks, and a significant proportion of the remainder, are considered of national importance and worthy of protection.

The monument includes four Iron Age square barrows of a closely associated group of prehistoric earthworks on Westwood Common, which includes both square and bowl barrows, as well as Romano-British enclosures, linear boundary dykes and a short section of Roman road. The group has survived as part of a rare landscape characterised by features dating back as far as the Bronze Age, which has owed its survival to the granting of common grazing rights to the local people of Beverley in the 14th century AD. The survival of such an extensive area of prehistoric earthworks is unusual in this region of East Yorkshire, where arable agricultural practices have resulted in the destruction of many earthwork remains of monuments above ground. It offers important insights into ancient land use and territorial divisions for social, ritual and agricultural purposes in this area, and the development of these through time. Although one barrow of the group was subject to a part excavation by Canon Greenwell in 1875, it is not thought that the three surviving square barrows were disturbed, and they will therefore survive with their archaeological integrity fully intact. The remaining excavated barrow still survives as a visible earthwork, and will contain further archaeological information relating to its construction. Together they constitute part of a well-defined group of Iron Age barrows on the Common.

Details

The monument includes four Iron Age square barrows on Westwood Common, Beverley, 200m north west of Blackmill. Together they represent an important group of prehistoric funerary earthworks surviving together on Westwood Common, which itself represents a sizeable area of land in which prehistoric earthworks have survived because of the establishment of common grazing rights here in the 14th century AD. The group includes three clearly square, and one sub-rectangular or nearly circular-shaped Iron Age barrow, which was excavated by Canon Greenwell in 1875, and produced a fine cart burial, now in the British Museum. This barrow measures 6.5m in diameter and 0.5m in height, and now has the appearance of a small bowl barrow, owing to the disturbance of the monument during its excavation by Greenwell. It was found to contain a central, oval grave, containing two tyres, each with an iron hoop, and two bits, as well as other pieces of iron. Given the acidity of the soil here, bones did not survive. Although Greenwell is reported to have opened other barrows on Westwood Common, in addition to these described above, it is not thought that the remaining group of three clearly square barrows here were opened, as they appear to be undisturbed. Two square barrows lie on an east-west alignment to the north of the round barrow described above. The best surviving square barrow of this group lies 4m to the north east of the semicircular barrow excavated by Greenwell, described above. It includes a low central platform 8m square and up to 0.4m high, surrounded by a ditch 1.5m - 2m wide and up to 0.3m deep. A low bank 2.5m wide surrounds the ditch. On the westward side this bank joins the western square barrow, the two monuments existing side by side, and thus forms the eastern bank to this monument. The western barrow has a central low platform 9m square and up to 0.35m high, and is also surrounded by a low ditch about 0.3m deep and up to 2m wide. At a distance of 8m - 10m to the south of these two square barrows lies a third, which is aligned approximately centrally to their common co-joining inner bank. It consists of a central low platform about 9m square and 0.3m high, surrounded by a ditch up to 2m wide and 0.25m deep, and a low bank 2.5m wide. The northern edge of this monument lies 4m - 5m to the south of the barrow excavated by Greenwell. The square barrows here form part of an important group of square barrows surviving as upstanding earthworks on Westwood Common. This close-packed configuration, whereby the east-west aligned barrows share a central bank, is typical of these Iron Age square barrows, which are often found tightly-packed in large groups forming a cemetery, as at Carnaby near Burton Agnes, Burton Fleming and Rudston, where many of the barrows share ditches with their adjoining neighbours.

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:

26562

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Stead, I M, The Arras Culture, (1979), 98
Greenwell, W, British Barrows, (1877), 456
Greenwell, W, British Barrows, (1877), 456

Other
Kinnes, IA and Longworth, IH, Catalogue of the excavated material in the Greenwell collection, Catalogue of Excavated Material in the Greenwell Collection, (1985)
Humberside SMR, Sites and Monuments Records Sheet, (1994)
Mackay, Rodney , (1995)

End of official list entry

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