Monument record MDO6074 - Wor Barrow, Sixpenny Handley

A long barrow excavated by General Pitt-Rivers in 1893-4. Before excavation the barrow was a mound 150 feet long, 75 feet wide and 12 feet high. Removal of the mound revealed a rectangular enclosure with an entrance at one end, formed by a ditch packed with flint into which was set timber posts. Six burials lay beneath a shallow turf mound inside the enclosure. Two more Neolithic burials were placed within the ditch, and seventeen Romano-British burials were found in the mound and ditch. After excavation the barrow was re-formed into an amphitheatre for public events.

Wor Barrow. `Pegan bearh' [This is a Stadden transcript of Crawford's original entry. `Pegan' may really be `pagan']. <3> Orientated northwest-southeast with larger end to the southeast containing six crouched burials. The long barrow was about 150 feet long, 75 feet wide and 12.5 feet high and surrounded by an irregular ditch with four causeways. <4> An Anglo-Saxon horse ornament was found at a depth of 1.7 feet in the surface mould of the ditch surrounding the Wor Barrow (cf. similar object from Anglo-Saxon graves near Eastry, Kent). <5> Wor Barrow. Owing to its complete excavation by Pitt-Rivers, 1893-4, this long barrow does not preserve its original appearance. It now appears as a large flat-topped mound surrounded by a deep wide ditch which is craned by four causeways. Mounds to the N and SE are presumably spoil heaps as is a large terraced bank on the W side. <6> The Wor Barrow contained an enclosure 90 feet by 34 feet with an entrance at the southeast end. This was defined by a trench 1.5-3 feet wide and 3 feet deep packed with flint nodules that once supported timber uprights. Within the enclosure under a low turf mound by six primary inhumations, three articulated, three in diameter. The ditch surrounding the barrow was interrupted by one causeway at the northwest end, three at the southeast. The ditch was between 15 and 25 wide and generally 13 feet deep. Traces of an earlier ditch were rated on the northeast and south inner margins. Two early Neolithic burials, an adult and child were found at a depth of 8 feet at the southeast end of the ditch. Seventeen Romano-British burials, eight of them headless were found in shallow graves inserted into the mound and ditch, and much pottery of this period was found scattered in the upper filling of the ditch. The finds are in the Pitt-Rivers Museum, Farnham. <10> Two radiocarbon dates have been obtained from antlers found in the barrow-ditch basal silting. These give dates of 2490 I 70 bc (BM 2284) and 2400 I 70 bc (BM 2283). <11> Wor Barrow and two bowl barrows on Handley Down. Scheduling amended. <16> No dating evidence was found associated with the seventeen inhumations recovered from the barrow and ditch and a Romano-British date had been suggested. However this cemetery has many characteristics of a late Saxon execution cemetery, therefore the burials could be of a similar date. <17> NRHE Summary: Neolithic long barrow located near the crest of Oakley Down, orientated roughly northwest-southeast. Listed by RCHME as Sixpenny Handley 29 and by Grinsell as Handley I. Excavated totally by Pitt Rivers in 1893-4, prior to excavation it comprised a mound 150 feet long, 75 feet wide and 12 feet high. It was surrounded by a ditch which proved to be steep-sided, flat-bottomed, and interrupted by a single causeway at the northwest end and three at the southeast end. The ditch varied in width from 10 feet to 25 feet, and was up to 13 feet deep. The excavations showed that the mound was preceded by an earlier monument on the same alignment, suggested by Barrett et al (1991) to be a sub-rectangular post-built structure, the posts perhaps revetting a mound up to 1.5 metres high. A porched entrance faced southeast, and just inside it was the main burial area. Bracketed by 2 D-shaped pits and flanked by a stone bank were the disarticulated remains of 3 males and the articulated skeletons of 3 others, all covered by a low mound of soil. The ditch surrounding the later, enlarged mound featured a lengthy sequence of deposits, beginning with Early Neolithic plain bowl sherds plus antler radicoarbon dated to the early to mid 4th millennium BC in the lowest fill. Above these layers, but below those containing Peterborough Ware, were 2 crouched inhumations (1 adult, 1 child) with a large flint arrowhead against the west terminal of the entrance. Higerh layers contained Peterborough Ware pottery, while the uppermost featured some beaker sherds and Roman pottery. Seventeen possible late Saxon burials had been inserted into the ditch. In later prehistory, Wor Barrow appears to have been separated from cultivated fields by an irregulalr ditched enclosure (see SU 01 NW 12). Wor Barrow is closely associated with two later Neolithic round barrows (SU 01 NW 13 and 15). The site was reconstructed, after a fashion, by Pitt Rivers.

Record last edited

Mar 8 2023 9:34AM