Record Details

NHER Number:2688
Type of record:Monument
Name:Bronze Age bowl barrow and medieval moot

Summary

This is the site of a Bronze Age bowl barrow, part of a larger barrow group. A human burial and a dagger dating to the Bronze Age were found when the barrow was excavated. During the medieval period the barrow was used as a moot, an open air meeting place for the hundred court.

Images - none

Location

Grid Reference:TF 8280 0562
Map Sheet:TF80NW
Parish:COCKLEY CLEY, BRECKLAND, NORFOLK

Full description

Tumulus.
Site of a barrow near Red Lodge Farm, 594m to the east, although (S1) in fact marks it further west.

(S2) states that Greenhoe Hundred takes its name from tumuli lying by London Road to Swaffham.
(S3) marks barrow at above site and these may be those referred to. Bryant definitely ascribes this site as South Greenhoe Hundred court.

Medieval cross base mentioned here in (S4), (S5), (S6) and (S7).

1963. Excavation.
Hole dug into centre by [1]:
Flexed inhumation burial found.
Report by C. P. B. Wells.
Male, 45 to 50 years old, 5'6" tall, powerfully built with osteo-arthritis in knee, feet and elbow joints.
Traces of bronze on bones.
At first stated no associations, but later a 'Bush Barrow' type copper alloy dagger was produced as found with skeleton, and two spare rivets from this dagger or another. See drawings (S9) and (S10).

Publication in (S8).
Notes evidence of other bronzes as well as dagger and also ?leather.
E. Rose (NAU) 7 July 1986.

April 2004. Scheduled.
Scheduling description:
The monument includes a bowl barrow located on a north west facing slope, 840m south east of Forestry Lodge. The barrow, one of a group recorded in the area in the mid-18th century, is situated in the northern part of the Breckland region of south west Norfolk. Another round barrow lies approximately 350m to the sotuh west and is the subject of a separate scheduling.
The barrow is visible as an earthen mound measuring approximately 30m in diameter and standing 1.2m high. Limited excavations, undertaken in 1963, revealed a flexed inhumation of a male, aged about 45 years. A copper alloy dagger was found with the burial and is thought to date to about 1500 BC.
The barrows have been identified as the meeting place, or moot, of the South Greenhoe Hundred.
Information from (S11) and (S12).
H. Mellor (HES), 22 June 2018.

Monument Types

  • BOWL BARROW (Late Neolithic to Late Bronze Age - 3000 BC to 701 BC)
  • FLEXED INHUMATION (Bronze Age - 2350 BC to 701 BC)
  • INHUMATION (Bronze Age - 2350 BC to 701 BC)
  • ROUND BARROW (Bronze Age - 2350 BC to 701 BC)
  • CROSS (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
  • MOOT (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)

Associated Finds

  • DAGGER (Bronze Age - 2350 BC to 701 BC)
  • HUMAN REMAINS (Bronze Age - 2350 BC to 701 BC)
  • UNIDENTIFIED OBJECT (Bronze Age - 2350 BC to 701 BC)
  • UNIDENTIFIED OBJECT (Bronze Age - 2350 BC to 701 BC)

Protected Status

  • Scheduled Monument

Sources and further reading

---Record Card: Ordnance Survey Staff. 1933-1979?. Ordnance Survey Record Cards. TF 80 NW 4 [4].
---Record Card: NAU Staff. 1974-1988. Norfolk Archaeological Index Primary Record Card.
---Record Card: Clarke, R. R. and NCM Staff. 1933-1973. Norwich Castle Museum Record Card - Bronze Age. Cockley Cley [2].
---Article in Serial: Wells, C. 1964. Notes on a human skeleton from a round barrow at Cockley Cley. Norfolk Research Committee Bulletin. Series 1 No 15 (for 1963) pp 7-8.
---Secondary File: Secondary File.
---Slide: Various. Slide.
---Photograph: CXW1-2.
<S1>Map: Ordnance Survey. 1824-1836. Ordnance Survey First Edition 1 inch..
<S2>Article in Serial: Gomme, G. L. 1884. Open-air Hundred Courts in Norfolk. Norfolk Archaeology. Vol IX pp 62-67. p 65.
<S3>Map: Bryant, A.. 1826. Bryant's Map of Norfolk.
<S4>Article in Serial: Cozens-Hardy B. 1934. Norfolk Crosses. Norfolk Archaeology. Vol XXV Pt II pp 297-336. p 305.
<S5>Article in Serial: Clarke, W. G. 1913. Norfolk Barrows. The Antiquary. Vol XLIX pp 416-423. p 419.
<S6>Publication: Clarke, W. G. 1925. In Breckland Wilds. First Edition. p 186.
<S7>Documentary Source: Martin, T. c. 1700-1799. Collections of Church Notes. Norfolk Records Office. c. 1740.
<S8>Article in Monograph: Lawson, A. J. and Tomalin, D. J. 1986. Notes on Three Norfolk Barrow Excavations at Bridgham, Cockley Cley and Old Hunstanton with a Note on a Barrow Excavation at Garboldisham. Barrow Excavations in Norfolk, 1950-82. East Anglian Archaeology. Lawson, A. J. et al.. No 29 pp 104-113. pp 106-108.
<S9>Illustration: [Unknown]. 1963. Annotated drawing of a Bronze Age copper alloy 'Bush Barrow' dagger. Paper. 1:1.
<S10>Illustration: [Norwich Castle Museum staff]. 1963. Drawing of a Bronze Age copper alloy 'Bush Barrow' dagger. Card. 1:1.
<S11>Designation: English Heritage. 1990-2013. English Heritage Scheduling Notification. Notification. DNF583.
<S12>Designation: English Heritage. 1994? -2011?. English Heritage Digital Designation Record. Record. DNF583.

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