Monument record 15369 - Cluster of Bronze Age Burials, East of Hulme Barns Farm, Bucklow Hill

<1> Wessex Archaeology, 2017, A556 Knutsford to Bowdon Improvement, Cheshire: Archaeological Strip Map and Excavation & Post Excavation Assessment, R3920 (Client Report). SCH8111.

A cluster of cremated human burials were recorded during an archaeological strip, map and excavation undertaken in 2014-15. This work formed part of a programme of archaeological investigations along the course of the proposed A556 Knutsford to Bowdon relief road. The site lies approximately 90m to the east of another ring ditch/barrow, also containing burials (CHER 15367). It is thought that this cluster of burials would also have been originally associated with a barrow and, although no physical evidence for a barrow was found, a group of anomalies forming a vague ring some 23 m in diameter was visible in the geophysical data in this area.

In total, concentrations of burnt bone were recovered from approximately 14 locations in this cluster, with the total amounting to some 3099g. All of the cremation burials were unurned. The deposits formed a sub-circular cluster some 30m in diameter, with a pair of outliers (1056 and 1058) 35m to the north-north-west of its northern edge. The deposits presented either as concentrations of burnt bone and charcoal placed in small cuts, or varying concentrations of lenses of such material within the subsoil. Up to eight unurned burials were present, alongside amounts of redeposited pyre debris. Some of the latter deposits probably represent the results of plough damage to in situ cremation burials.

Cremation grave 917 measured 0.45 m–0.5 m in diameter. Two fills were recorded, a 0.3 m thick main fill of cremated human bone and ash in a matrix of dark grey/brown/black loamy sand, overlain by a 0.1 m thick capping layer of dark brown silty sand containing occasional fragments of cremated bone. A fragment of bone from the main fill was radiocarbon dated to 1610-1410 cal BC (SUERC-64514; 3210±37 BP). This date belongs to the Early–Middle Bronze Age transition.

The cremated bone remains collected from this cluster of remains, together with those from the ring ditch to the west (CHER 15367), represent a minimum of 15, more probably 21 individuals, including two infants, one juvenile/subadult and at least 10, more probably 15 adults. Where closer age ranges could be attributed the majority fell within the young–mature ranges, with none conclusively identified as >45 years of age. A probable sex was attributed to only nine - four females and five males.

<2> Patrick Daniel, 2021, “What are the dead for?” Bronze Age burials in a multi-period landscape at Bucklow Hill, Cheshire, Archaeological Journal, 2021, p.1-82 (Article in Journal). SCH9099.

Article discussing the excavated remains at Bucklow Hill and the programme of radiocarbon dating which has resulted in the first high-resolution radiocarbon chronology for a prehistoric funerary site in the county. Given the paucity of excavation at such sites in Cheshire in recent decades, the opportunity to examine and date this site is regionally important. The time-depth of the exposed landscape is also significant, with indications of a human presence prior to the Bronze Age and more plentiful evidence for subsequent periods. Probable early medieval inhumations were focused upon the earlier burial sites, and these together with the remains of agriculture and iron smithing represent regionally rare glimpses of the early medieval period. They show the continued importance of this part of the landscape to local people and highlight the ‘connective’ role of funerary monuments in allowing such inter-relationships between different communities across time.