Monument record 571/1/2 - Highfield Lane East Barrow

<1> British Archaeological Association, 1860, Proceedings of the Association (1860), p.295-296 (Article in Journal). SCH9013.

A stone axe-hammer, bronze javelin-blade, calcined bones, and fragments of a sepulchral urn, from a barrow at Winwick by farm labourers levelling a barrow to fill up a large ditch nearby. On the Ordnance Map of Lancashire, this tumulus and another within twenty or thirty yards to the west of it, have been considered and laid down as parts of one large, elongated tumulus, through which a lane or bye-road has been cut. There is, however, reason to believe that they have always formed two distinct tumuli; the more so as a third, of an equal size, formerly existed about a quarter of a mile to the east. The human bones were contained in an urn, whose shoulder had a chevron pattern, found two feet below the surface of the mound.

Immediately above it was found a layer of burnt wood. The stone celt (illustrated) and bronze spearhead (illustrated) were found in the urn along with the bones. From a fragment of the base, it is estimated that the urn was four inches in diameter. The vessel is hand-moulded, the decorations dotted on with a wooden point. The paste consists of clay with a slight admixture of angular pieces of stone; and is imperfectly baked, or rather burnt, on the exterior surface.

The axe-hammer is of a light-coloured claystone porphyry, and measures four inches and three-quarters in length, and about one inch and a quarter across its cutting edge, having a perforation seven-eighths of an inch in diameter worked through its centre to admit the haft. The spearhead (or javelin) has a flat tang and is four and a quarter inches long, though the point is broken off, one inch and seven-sixteenths wide. It weighs about one ounce and three- quarters.

The human remains have evidently undergone the process of cremation, and are much cracked, broken, and contorted.

<2> Robson J, 1860, Tumuli at Winwick (Article in Journal). SCH9018.

Description and illustration of finds from tumulus.

<3> Evans J, 1881, The Ancient Bronze Implements, Weapons, and Ornaments, of Great Britain And Ireland, p.224 (Book). SCH254.

Dagger narrow in the tang and about 4 1/4 inches long, was found, with a stone axe-hammer, and bones, in an urn within a barrow at Winwick near Warrington.

<4> Royal Archaeological Institute, 1861, Proceedings at Meetings of the Archaeological Institute (1861), p.158 (Article in Journal). SCH9017.

A small leaf-shaped blade, described as a javelin-head, and found in a barrow at Winwick with a stone hammer or axe-head pierced for a haft, these objects being deposited within an urn, of which a few portions scored with chevrony ornament were preserved. The bronze relic measures 4 1/2 inches in length, by 1 1/2 inch greatest width; it has a thin tang, perforated at its extremity for a rivet.

<5> Warrington Museum Index (Book). SCH3691.

The dagger is described as possible razor with riveted tang.

<6> Evans J, 1897, Ancient Stone Implements, Weapons and Ornaments, of Great Britain, p.212 (Book). SCH260.

An axe-hammer of clay-stone porphyry, 4 1/4 inches long, and in form the same as those last described — except that there appears to be more of a shoulder at the hammer-end — was found in a barrow at Winwick, near Warrington, Lancashire. It was broken clean across the hole, and had been buried in an urn with burnt bones. With them was also a bronze dagger with a tang, and one rivet hole to secure it in the handle.

<7> Grealey S, 1976, The Archaeology of Warrington's Past, p.84 no.6 (Book). SCH3046.

Gazetter entry.

<8> Ordnance Survey, 1870-1982, Ordnance Survey Archaeological Record Card, SJ69 SW 5 (Index). SCH2487.

<9> Davey P & Forster E, 1975, Bronze Age Metalwork from Lancashire and Cheshire, no.21 (Monograph). SCH488.

Dagger classified as tanged spear head and findspot is given as SJ61389323.

<10> Jackson JW, 1936, The Prehistoric Archaeology of Lancashire and Cheshire, 50/81-82 Jackson J W 1934 (Article in Journal). SCH9015.

Described as tanged lancehead with a rivet hole in the tang and of Arreton Down type.

<11> Longley D, 1977-1978, Longley Archive, no.113 (Paper Archive). SCH2005.

<12> Freke, D.J and Holgate, R, 1987, Excavations at Winwick, Cheshire in 1980: 1. Excavation of Two Second Millennium B.C. Mounds, p.16-17 (Article in Journal). SCH8278.

Excavations at the site of a barrow destroyed in 1860, when a collared urn, containing cremated human bone, a bronze tanged triangular blade and a porphyry battle axe was recovered. ‘An urn with bones in it’ is also reputed to have come from this barrow in 1844. One definite and five possible pits of Bronze Age date still survived. Although truncated by the plough, pit 40 produced the lower half of a small hemispherical bowl of Beaker fabric, decorated with three impressed twisted cord bands and charcoal but no other artefacts. A flint flake and a fragment of Beaker fabric pottery, unassociated with any features, came from the surface of the natural red sand. The meagre contents of these pits suggests a probable association with the ritual use of the barrow site rather than previous Bronze Age settlement on the site.

<13> English Heritage, 1990-1993, Monuments Protection Programme Site Visit Form, Robinson K.D. 20/1/1993 (Unpublished Document). SCH5222.

Barrow considered to have been destroyed by ploughing