Monument record 15372 - Inhumation Burials and Pits, 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.

Twelve probable early Medieval inhumation burials, were recorded during an archaeological strip, map and excavation undertaken in 2014-15, to the east of Hulme Barns Farm, Bucklow Hill. This work formed part of a programme of archaeological investigations along the course of the proposed A556 Knutsford to Bowdon relief road. The burials were dug into a Bronze Age round barrow (see CHER 15367). No human bone was recovered from the burials, potentially due to the acidic, sandy soil, so the interpretation as graves is based on the form of the features in plan, their common east-west alignment, and their clustering around the ring ditch and its associated funerary remains.

Ten of the graves were located close to the outer lip of the ring ditch; three on its northern side and a fairly orderly row of seven down its eastern side. The remaining two graves were located within the north-east quadrant of the area enclosed by the ring ditch. The graves varied in length between 2.2 m and 1.34 m and in width between 0.56 m and 1.14 m. The shallowest was just 0.03 m deep, the deepest 0.25m. Each contained a single fill, which typically consisted of a mid-brown or mid-greyish brown sandy silt loam. The cereal species (small amounts of possible rye grain) present within grave 734 suggest an early medieval or later date for the feature. To ascertain the function of the features, phosphate analysis was carried out on two of the graves. All samples show evidence of possible human and/or animal activity, but no conclusive proof was found of them having contained decomposed human remains.

Several pits were also focused on the round barrow, including pit 803 which lay 5.3 m to the north of the ring ditch. This pit contained an assemblage of iron smithing slag, fragments of vitrified hearth/furnace lining, hammerscale and a fragment of alder or hazel charcoal which was radiocarbon dated to cal AD 780–1010. An early medieval date for several features is suggested by the types of cereal found within their fills. In two instances, this has been confirmed by radiocarbon assay, dating the pits to the 6th and 7th centuries cal. AD. Away from the ring ditch, remains of a rudimentary circular structure with a central fire pit (CHER 15375) may also belong to the early medieval period. The environmental remains from this period are relatively rich, and are indicative of contemporary settlement in the area, set within a landscape of grassland and arable fields. Numerous 'potboiler' pits were recorded across the project area, although most were artefactually sterile and could potentially belong to any one of a number of periods.

<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.

The notion that the probable inhumation graves date to the early medieval period receives circumstantial support from a radio carbon date (cal AD 360–540; UBA-39778; 1626 ± 27 BP) of a fragment of unstratified human skull from the eastern cluster of cremation burials (CHER 15369). This suggests that both this barrow and the burial site to the east were both being used for mortuary practices in the medieval period.