EWX693 - Crouch Hill, Stanpit Marsh, Christchurch; excavation 1921

St George Gray directed excavations on the low turf mound of Crouch Hill, Stanpit Marsh, Christchurch during October 1921. No published report. Funded by H G Selfridge. The mound was 48m in diameter and stood 1.6m above the surrounding marsh. A trench 3m wide and c. 50m long and aligned NW-SE was excavated down to natural at a depth of 0.8m. In the northern part of the trench the excavation continued down to base gravels at a depth of c. 2m. The mound was recorded as being composed entirely of brownish-grey sand with bands of ochreous clay and blackish soil, interpreted as the remains of turves. A large amount of grooved ware pottery was recovered, along with some early Bronze Age pottery. One concentration of pottery occurred near the centre of the mound, within and surrounded by an area of blackened sand. Several flint cores and scrapers were associated with this deposit, including a fine horseshoe scraper. Five flat and rounded pebbles were recovered from beneath the deposit, three of which were similar to whetstones found at Glastonbury lake village. Further parts of the mound contained burnt patches, incinerated bone and grooved ware pottery. The site appears to be a Bronze Age barrow, although the inclusion of large amounts of fragmentary grooved ware, deliberately deposited as such, is unusual. No obvious cremations in urns were discovered.