Cairnfield and standing stones east of Bunker's Hill Wood, 1km north east of Park Farm

Reasons for Designation

The East Moors in Derbyshire includes all the gritstone moors east of the River Derwent. It covers an area of 105 sq km, of which around 63% is open moorland and 37% is enclosed. As a result of recent and on-going archaeological survey, the East Moors area is becoming one of the best recorded upland areas in England. On the enclosed land the archaeological remains are fragmentary, but survive sufficiently well to show that early human activity extended beyond the confines of the open moors. On the open moors there is significant and well-articulated evidence over extensive areas for human exploitation of the gritstone uplands from the Neolithic to the post-medieval periods. Bronze Age activity accounts for the most intensive use of the moorlands. Evidence for it includes some of the largest and best preserved field systems and cairnfields in northern England as well settlement sites, numerous burial monuments, stone circles and other ceremonial remains which, together, provide a detailed insight into life in the Bronze Age. Also of importance is the well preserved and often visible relationship between the remains of earlier and later periods since this provides an insight into successive changes in land use through time. A large number of the prehistoric sites on the moors, because of their rarity in a national context, excellent state of preservation and inter-connections, will be identified as nationally important.

Cairnfields are concentrations of cairns sited in close proximity to one another. They often consist largely of clearance cairns, built with stone cleared from the surrounding land surface to improve its use for agriculture. In some cases, the cairns were used for funerary purposes although without excavation it is difficult to determine which cairns contain burials. Clearance cairns were constructed from the Neolithic period (from c.3,400 BC) although the majority date from the Bronze Age (2,000-700 BC). Cairnfields can also retain information concerning the development of land use and agricultural practices as well as the diversity of beliefs and social organisation during the prehistoric period.

Standing stones are prehistoric ritual or ceremonial monuments with dates ranging from the Late Neolithic to the end of the Bronze Age. They comprise single or paired upright orthostats and are often conspicuously sited and close to other contemporary monument classes. Where excavated their associated subsurface features have included stone cists and various pits and hollows filled with earth containing human bone, cremations, charcoal, flints, pots and potsherds. Standing stones may have functioned as markers for routeways, territories, graves, or meeting places, but their accompanying features show that they also bore a ritual function and that they form one of several ritual monument classes of their period. Standing stones are found widely-distributed in England but there are concentrations in Cornwall, the North Yorkshire Moors, Cumbria, Derbyshire and the Cotswolds. They are nationally rare monuments and consequently all undisturbed standing stones and those which represent the main ranges and types of locations are considered to be of national importance.

The cairnfield and standing stones east of Bunker's Hill Wood, 1km north east of Park Farm, survive well and provide an insight into Bronze Age ceremonial use of this moorland.

Details

The monument includes a small cairnfield and two standing stones of Bronze Age date. The complex occupies a shelf of higher ground overlooking an extensive area of Bronze Age settlement to the north on Gibbet Moor, which is the subject of a separate scheduling. The small cairnfield is formed of at least six small cairns. They stand in a relatively stone free area, the largest being less than four metres in diameter, and appear to survive intact. At the northern edge of the cairnfield are two standing stones in close proximity to each other. One stone stands approximately 0.9m high with the other, about 0.7m away, standing approximately 0.5m high although it is now leaning. Surrounding the two standing stones are a number of gritstone blocks which appear to have once formed an enclosing kerb. About 40m to the west of the standing stones and still within the cairnfield, is another upright boulder. Although this could be a natural formation, it is likely to have formed a prominent feature of the complex.

The isolated location of the complex, standing away from, but overlooking, the main area of settlement to the north, indicates that it functioned as a ceremonial site with the possibility that burials were placed beneath the cairns.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. It includes a 5 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:

31265

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Barnatt, J W, The Chatsworth Estate Historic Landscape Survey (Moorlands), (1998), 77
Barnatt, J W, The Chatsworth Estate Historic Landscape Survey (Moorlands), (1998), 77
Barnatt, J W, The Chatsworth Estate Historic Landscape Survey (Moorlands), (1998), 77
Barnatt, J W, The Chatsworth Estate Historic Landscape Survey (Moorlands), (1998), 77

End of official list entry

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