Siwards How, south east of the water tower, Heslington Hill

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

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1015690
Date first listed:: 16-Nov-1934

The Missing Pieces Project

Share your view of unique places.

Add your contribution

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.

What is the National Heritage List for England?

The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

The list includes:

🏠 Buildings
🏰 Scheduled monuments
🌳 Parks and gardens
⚔️ Battlefields
⚓ Shipwrecks

Find out more about listing

Historic England Archive

Search over 1 million photographs and drawings from the 1850s to the present day using our images archive.

Find Photos

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1015690
Date first listed:: 16-Nov-1934
Date of most recent amendment:: 04-Mar-1997

Location

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

District:: York (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Heslington
District:: York (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: SE 62186 50871

Reasons for Designation

A hlaew is a burial monument of Anglo-Saxon or Viking date and comprising a hemispherical mound of earth and redeposited bedrock constructed over a primary burial or burials. These were usually inhumations, buried in a grave cut into the subsoil beneath the mound, but cremations placed on the old ground surface beneath the mound have also been found. Hlaews may occur in pairs or in small groups; a few have accompanying flat graves. Constructed during the pagan Saxon and Viking periods for individuals of high rank, they served as visible and ostentatious markers of their social position. Some were associated with territorial claims and appear to have been specifically located to mark boundaries. They often contain objects which give information on the range of technological skill and trading contacts of the period. Only between 50 and 60 hlaews have been positively identified in England. As a rare monument class all positively identified examples are considered worthy of preservation.

Siwards How survives in good condition and, as there is no evidence that it has ever been excavated, it will contain a full and undisturbed archaeological record of its construction, together with related burials and grave goods.

Details

The monument includes an Anglo Saxon burial mound, or hlaew, on Heslington Hill, 150m north west of the Morrell Library building of the University of York. The monument is situated on the top of a natural hill, and includes a large circular mound measuring approximately 30m in diameter and up to 6m high. Although it has never been excavated, it is interpreted as a burial mound of the Saxon period owing to its large size, and its overall likeness to Lamel Hill, another large Saxon tumulus nearby, which contained the cremated remains of 300 bodies within a single urn. There is no visible evidence of a surrounding ditch, which will have been infilled through the course of time but will survive as a buried feature. The modern post and wire fencing which surrounds the modern water tower on Heslington Hill immediately to the north west of the monument, is excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath it is included.

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:: 26623
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
AM 7, (1968)

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.