Stanground Wash Bronze Age Barrow Cemetery

Summary

A Bronze Age round barrow cemetery comprising at least 12 barrows, visible through LIDAR imagery, as cropmarks on aerial photography, and in some cases as large upstanding earthwork remains.

Reasons for Designation

Stanground Wash Barrow Cemetery is scheduled for the following principal reasons:

Rarity:
* barrow cemeteries are rare nationally and one of very few monument types to offer us insights into the lives and deaths of prehistoric communities in England;

Survival:
* as a group of barrows visible through LIDAR imagery, as cropmarks on aerial photography, and in some cases as large upstanding earthwork remains;

Diversity:
* the size of the individual barrows is varied representing a range of approaches to Bronze Age, and possibly earlier, funerary ritual;

Potential:
* for the buried deposits which retain considerable potential to provide evidence relating to social organisation and demographics, cultural associations, human development, disease, diet, and death rituals. Buried environmental evidence can also inform us about the landscape in which the barrows were constructed.

History

The main period of round barrow construction occurred in the Early Bronze Age between about 2200-1500 BC (a period during which cremation succeeded inhumation as the primary burial rite), although Neolithic examples are known from as early as 3000 BC. In general, round barrows comprise a rounded earthen mound or stone cairn, the earthen examples usually having a surrounding ditch and occasionally an outer bank. They range greatly in size from just 5m in diameter to as much as 40m, with the mounds ranging from slight rises to as much as 4m in height. They occur either in isolation or grouped as cemeteries and often acted as a focus for burials in later periods. Barrow cemeteries comprise closely-spaced groups of up to 30 round barrows. Most cemeteries developed over a considerable period of time, often many centuries, and in some cases acted as a focus for burials as late as the early medieval period. Round barrow cemeteries occur across most of lowland Britain, with a marked concentration in Wessex.

The land at Stanground Wash is shown on historic maps to have been in continual agricultural use since the C19. It lies between two straightened branches of the River Nene (the principal branch and Morton’s Leam to the south, both waterways underwent several phases of straightening from the late C15 onwards). The ground itself is marked by man-made drainage channels.

Aerial photographs taken by the USAAF on 9 May 1944 show the earthwork remains of at least one of the barrows at Stanground Wash (HE Archive: Aerial Photo - us_7gr_loc334_v_5030). Further barrows are shown on photographs taken by the RAF on 24 April 1970 (HE Archive: Aerial Photo - raf_58_0445_v_0051). The barrows can be seen with considerable clarity on publicly accessible aerial mapping sequences from 1999 onwards. Peterborough City Council’s PCCHER (Ben Robinson Collection) show raking images of the earthwork mounds of several barrows at Stanground Wash between 2005 and 2007.

Birkbeck College, University of London, undertook a fieldwork survey of the barrows at Stanground Wash in July 2021. 11 barrows were identified, comprising a northern cluster of four barrows and an irregular line of seven southern barrows. The northern cluster were further investigated; six boreholes were hand augured and two test pits (1m x 1m) were hand excavated. These investigations confirmed that the site lies partly buried within peat.

A twelfth barrow was identified through LIDAR imagery as part of the site's assessment for scheduling. It lies at the western end of the northern cluster.

Details

PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS:

A Bronze Age barrow cemetery visible as earthwork mounds and crop marks. The site includes 12 round barrows, roughly differentiated into a tight cluster of five northern barrows and an irregular line of seven southern barrows. The site lies between two branches of the River Nene to the east of the city of Peterborough.

DESCRIPTION:

The barrow cemetery comprises a northern cluster of five barrows and an irregular line of seven southern barrows running roughly east-west. The smallest is approximately 15m in diameter and the largest is roughly 40m across. All of the barrows are visible through LIDAR imaging. The presence of many of the barrows is revealed in cropmarks shown on aerial photographs. The larger barrows are clearly visible as substantial earthworks.

Barrows at TL 2160 9787, TL 2163 9791, TL 2151 9788, TL 2154 9791 and TL 2143 9787 form the northern cluster.

Barrows at TL 2149 9767, TL 2157 9773, TL 2167 9773, TL 2174 9775, TL 2185 9769, TL 2194 9776, TL 2199 9784 form the southern linear group.

The largest barrow in the northern cluster (TL 2160 9787) may have been disturbed by animal activity.

The large western barrow of the southern group (TL 2149 9767) is hard against an irrigation ditch which may have impacted on any associated outer ditch. The barrow at TL 2185 9769 has been cut through by an irrigation ditch and by the creation of the Morton’s Leam waterway.

EXCLUSIONS:

The electricity pylons and all fencing, fence posts and gates are excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath these features is included.

EXTENT OF SCHEDULING:

The boundary line has been drawn in order to take in the barrows with a 5m buffer zone around them for the support and maintenance of the monument. The area between the barrows has been included to provide protection for any flat burials between the crop mark and earthwork features. The monument is bordered to the north by the River Nene Navigation and to the south by Morton's Leam.

Sources

Other
Report: Knight, M, McFadyen, L, and Horne, D, July 2021. Nene Washes (Stanground Wash) Barrow Survey, Birkbeck College/CAU Fieldschool 2021: Summary Report
Aerial Photographs: Ben Robinson Collection, PCCHER

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.