Monument record 1283 - Possible Bronze Age barrow cemetery

Cropmarks of five ring ditches, possibly Bronze Age round barrows, identified on aerial photographs. Only two of the ring ditches were subsequently identified during the Northants NMP project. One of these ring ditches is up to 30 metres in diameter, and features a possible entrance causeway on its south or southwest side. It occurs in an area covered with the cropmarks of periglacial features, making interpretation difficult. A small sub-circular enclosure, with a single entrance on the southest side, is also visible as a cropmark on air photographs. Internal diameter is circa 6 metres, with the ditch 1 to 2 metres wide. Harding and Lee include them in their gazetteer of henges, suggesting that such an interpretation is by no means out of the question. A cropmark of a third possible ring ditch is visible on air photographs at TF 0016 0418. This is presumably the feature noted by Harding and Lee at circa TF 0017 0422? They describe that cropmark as "vague traces of a possible ring ditch" measuring circa 15 metres by 18 metres in diameter.

{2} Ring ditch (TF 00140422), on the N. side of Ketton Drift near its W. end, on limestone at 300 ft. above OD. Diam. 30 m. with a possible causeway across the ditch on its S. side. Ring ditch (TF 00160418), 35 m. S.S.E. of (1) and in a similar position. Diam. 10 m. {4}

<1> Northamptonshire SMR Collection of Aerial Photographs, NCCAP:TF0004/1-2 (Aerial Photograph(s)). SNN104822.

<2> Royal Commission on The Historical Monuments of England, 1975, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in The County of Northampton, p.37/Sites 1 and 2 (checked) (Series). SNN77379.

<3> Harding, A F and Lee, G E, 1987, Henge monuments and related sites of Great Britain : air photographic evidence and catalogue, Site 117, p. 200-1 (Report). SNN113614.

<4> Aerial Photograph, CUAP, BCD 82–3 (Photographs). SNN112974.

Record last edited

Feb 3 2025 8:54PM