Monument record MDR3511 - Burton Moor Bowl Barrow, Burton Moor, Bakewell

Dimensions: Diameter is 78ft. Height is 1m. A round barrow mutilated by stone robbers. Three field walls meet on its crest. Excavation in 1849 revealed three crouched primary skeletons on the old land surface, two of these female. They were accompanied by two worked flints and a jet necklace comprising 39 conical sherds, 26 cylindrical beads and eight flat spacer plates. A secondary Anglian inhumation inserted into the body of the Bronze Age round cairn. The skeleton was accompanied by a bronze hanging bowl and part of a silver-plated frame of an escutcheon. (1) This site appears on the 6" OS map of 1923: 'TUMULUS (Human Remains, Necklace etc. found)'. (2) Grass-covered mound crossed by one wall which is abutted by another from the south. There is also a gateway on the west side at the foot of the mound. Some mole activity on 23rd December 1987. The majority of the mound in the field to the south east, lies to the north and west. Intervisible with Grindlow I to the south and good views to and from the Wye Valley, Calton pasture and Stanton. It is the highest spot on Burton Moors. (7) Registered as a Peak Park Treasure. (8) To the west the barrow side has been truncated by ploughing. Bateman probably excavated south-east of the wall junction but his trench is no longer obvious. While the mound may have had some stone removed and was disturbed near the surface prior to 1849, it still retains much of its height. The account given in (1) of Bateman's excavation is incomplete in the following respects. The primary burial was probably in a pit as it was described as 'a little below the natural level'. The necklace had 39 conical studs/V-perforated 'buttons'. One of the spacer plates was of bone. Above this burial, and a covering of stones was a layer of cremated bone and splinters of animal bone. A well-preserved round barrow crossed east/west by a field wall. Until relatively recently, a further wall met this at the summit, running southwards. The mound measures 15 by 14m across, the edges truncated somewhat by ploughing. The site was excavated by Bateman on the 30th April 1849. The mound was mutilated and disturbed for stone before this excavation. Three undisturbed skeletons were revealed, two female. Two flint instruments and an Earlier Bronze Age jet necklace, with one bone spacer were also found. The burials were covered in stone then earth, but between these two layers were many pieces of cremated bone and numerous broken animal bones. Near the disturbed top of the mound was an Anglian brooch which may have been an escutcheon from a broken and incomplete bronze bowl found nearby. (10) The barrow was scheduled on the 3rd July 1933 and affirmed on 9th December 1992. Burton Moor bowl barrow is located on the limestone plateau of Derbyshire, north of Grindlow on the eastern shelves south of the River Wye. The monument includes a roughly circular cairn measuring 15m by 14m and standing c.1.5m high. The north and west sides of the barrow have been somewhat disturbed in the past by stone robbers, probably at the time of the Enclosures. In 1849 the barrow was partially excavated by Thomas Bateman who found a primary rockcut grave containing three crouched skeletons, two of which were female. These were accompanied by a number of flint implements and a jet necklace and had been covered over with stones on which were found animal bones and the remains of a human cremation. These remains indicate a Bronze Age date for the barrow while, higher up in the mound, were found the remains of a secondary Anglian interment. This was accompanied by a bronze bowl and a silver-plated ring which Bateman calls a frame for an enamel. (11) Photographic record. (12, 13)