Books, Prehistory, Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society Volume 87 1941 Pages 56-71

The dry walling surrounding the tumulus was probably then not visible but covered with a sloping bank of earth. Skinner would never have taken the trouble to tunnel down through the top if there had been any outside indication of an entrance. This large entrance stone has unfortunately disappeared. Hoare says the central passage was 47 ft. 6 in. long, and goes on to state 'our investigations proved that the interments had been disturbed and their deposits (i.e. funereal furnishings) probably removed; for in the long avenue we met with many fragments of bones, etc., which had been displaced from the sepulchral recesses, many of which had been filled up with stones and other rubbish'. We would like to know now what became of the etceteras and rubbish. Some twenty-five years ago the writer measured the avenue and recesses and in comparing the plan with that reproduced by Hoare many discrepancies will be found. For instance, at F Hoare gives the measurement of this section of the gallery as being 12 ft., my plan makes it 8 ft. 9 in. Hoare again at B gives two stones where three exist now. These and other differences are not altogether unexpected after several restorations, and also when the difficulties encountered during an examination of the tumulus are considered, my experience when taking measurements on the warmest of summer days was that the cells and gallery were dark, chilly and cramping to work in. It is impossible to say now how many interments the tumulus originally contained, but each cell must have been well occupied. Hoare gives the following details. At A there were leg and thigh bones with smaller fragments. At B there were confused heaps of bones. At C four jaw-bones, also the upper part of two crania, together with leg and arm bones and vertebrae, but no perfect skeleton. This cell had been less disturbed than the others owing to one of the side stones having fallen and blocked the entrance. At D there were fragments of an earthen vessel with burnt bones, also the bones of two or three skeletons. The two skulls found at C were probably those that Hoare exhibited at the Society of Antiquaries, and on that occasion he stated they were 'totally different in their formation from any others which our researches have led us to examine, being fronte valde depressa'. Dr. Thurnam says² of the frontal bones, one is from the skull of a middle-aged man, the other of an aged woman; both are narrow and contracted and in life the forehead must have looked peculiarly flat and receding. They have a general resemblance to the skulls found in the Uley tumulus.

Note 2. Crania Britannica.

Boyd Dawkins states³ that 'they were identified by Thurnam with the long skulls of the Iberic population'. The skulls, after being exhibited at the Society of Antiquaries by Hoare, were returned to Skinner at Camerton, for he bequeathed them to the museum of the Bristol Philosophical Institution. At E there is a step from 4 to 6 in. in depth. The writer can substantiate Hoare's statement that in the same cell the interment of a cremated body accompanied burial by inhumation, for at G, where a rabbit or some other animal had been scraping, the earth contained fragments of charred human bone as well as unburnt. Some years after Hoare's and Skinner's excavations, Scarth seems to have examined the tumulus, and in a paper he wrote on Ancient Chambered Tumuli⁴ he produced a plan and drawings to some extent based on Hoare.⁵ Scarth states that in 1855 on visiting the tumulus he found two chambers had collapsed, and the centre of the mound was in a ruined condition. He thinks it was the part of the barrow where Skinner had opened it. Having received permission from the owner of the property and obtained the necessary funds⁶ from the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, the barrow was restored as nearly as possible to its original condition. Furthermore the encircling bank of earth was removed, entirely exposing the dry walling round the barrow.⁷ At the northern end, where the walling had been pulled down by the farmer, the wall was repaired and at the junction of the old and new work two upright stones were inserted marking the position. It is largely due to Scarth's energy and interest that the tumulus has been saved. A notice-board near the entrance gives the following information: 'This tumulus, declared by competent judges to be the most perfect specimen of Celtic antiquity still existing in Great Britain, having been much injured by the lapse of time, or the carelessness of former proprietors, was restored in 1858 by Mr. T. R. Joliffe, the lord of the hundred; the design of the original structure being preserved as far as possible with scrupulous exactness '.

Note 3. Victoria County History, Somerset, i, 193.

Note 4. Proc. Som. Arch. Soc., viii, 52.

Note 5. Archaologia, xix, 43-8.

Note 6. The treasurer's account for 1857 gives this item, 'Repairing Tumulus at Wellow 16s.'

Note 7. The advisability of this work is open to doubt, and would probably have met with considerable disapproval in these days.

The tumulus is now protected and scheduled as an ancient monument.

Additional measurements:

Width of entrance between dry walling, 5 ft. 3 in.

Width of trilithon entrance, 2 ft. 4 in. to 2 ft. 10 in.

Height of trilithon entrance, 3 ft. 9 in. to 4 ft.

Maximum length of large stone over entrance, 7 ft.

Maximum height of large stone over entrance, 3 ft. 7 in.

Thickness of large stone where exposed, 12 in.

Height of dry walling at entrance, 5 ft.

Height of dry walling elsewhere, 3 ft. to 4 ft.

Depth of curve of dry walling at level of entrance, 10 ft.

Tradition says this site was haunted and the abode of fairies. Although several letters were written by the Rev. Thomas Bere about this tumulus in and after 1788,⁸ and the Rev. H. M. Scarth published some notes with illustrations in 1858,⁹ it is not easy to disentangle the events that led to its identification and the unfortunate destruction that followed. There is also considerable confusion regarding the ground plan produced by both writers, for neither of them apparently drew his plan to scale and some of the details shown are conjectural. Fairy Toote was a large and important chambered long barrow, situated in a field adjoining the west boundary of Nempnett Thrubwell parish.¹⁰ Up to 1787 it was as far as is known quite complete, but in that year it fell on evil days and was doomed to deplorable and wanton ruination and unpardonable obliteration. In 1835 Phelps¹¹ states that the tumulus had now nearly disappeared, a lime-kiln having been built on the spot and the stones burnt into lime. The site of the barrow lies some 500 yds. E. of Butcombe church, and 630 yds. N. of Nempnett Farm, and is now recognizable by a small uneven heap of rubble-stone overgrown with thorn bushes and brambles, and near by is a ruined lime-kiln. The importance of the tumulus, and the interesting nature of its construction was first realized by the Rev. Thomas Bere, Rector of Butcombe. The following letter was written by him to the Editor of the Bath Chronicle, dated 27 December 1788:

Sir,

Some time last year Mr. Gray, a farmer and waywarden in the neighbourhood of my Parish, employed some workmen to obtain stones from a tumulus measuring 150 ft. from N. to S., 75 ft. from E. to w., and about 15 ft. in elevation. These persons soon came to a very curious unmortared wall seemingly of or near 4 ft. high, and 18 to 20 ins. thick, its direction N. to s. The stones of which it was built were thin, small and irregular; in length and breadth less, in diameter some-what more than the common Dutch chimney tile. Working through this wall, huge masses of rough, extensive rock fragments appeared placed in the form of the Greek letter Π, containing an area of 4 ft., which was conjectured to be an avenue of communication passing from the N. through the centre of the barrow to the s. extremity. (This excavation is shown at D in Bere's plan, and the three cells he saw are at E, F, and I, containing human bones.) In this state the affair rested till about the beginning of the present month, when, to prevent their being discharged by the uncommon severity of the season, Mr. Gray ordered some of his people to commence their labours at the tumulus, and to begin at the s. end. I think the first day's work brought them to an enormous flat stone of the same specific gravity, colour, and stratum, with those which in the N. end composed the Π; its dimensions were 6 ft. long (high), 5 ft. broad, and 16 ins. thick; it inclined considerably to the w., and if my conjecture be well founded, the door to the catacombs; of this kind was that which was placed at the mouth of the sepulchre of our Blessed Saviour. The admirable unmortared wall now again presented itself, and pursuing its direction to the N. at the distance of 13 ft., they came to another similar stone having a perforation in or near its centre,¹² with a declension to the N. of 30 to 35 degrees. Working round the E. end (side) of this, a cell 2 ft. 3 ins. in breadth and 9 ft. long came in view containing human, and as it is thought animal bones (H in plan). A skull which lay against the large perforated stone was entire, the teeth sound and white. Willing to have some idea of the height of the body of which it was once a part, I took the painter's datum, and allowing 8 faces from the hair on the forehead to the chin for the length of the whole it gave me something more than 8 ft.¹³ With this agrees the length of the sepulchre which, as was before observed, is 9 ft. long. I am sorry to say that the impertinent curiosity and malevolent wantonness of idle visitors have deranged and mutilated the bones. However, within the first cell on each side of the avenue, others are discernible, that are now worked at in a manner which will give the fairest view of them. I have minutely noted every particular and mean to pay the same attention to those that may occur. Recollecting Mr. Cruttwell what disingenious tricks have been played off on the public relative to subjects of this nature, I shall not scruple to give you my name.

I am, sir, Yours, etc.,

Thomas Bere.

Bragdon House, Near Bristol.'

Note 8. Bath Chronicle, 1788. Gent's Magazine, 1789 and 1792.

Note 9. Proc. Som. Arch. Soc., viii, 35-62.

Note 10. At least three of the chambered barrows of North Somerset act as boundary marks.

Note 11. Phelps, History of Somerset, ii, Introduction, 81.

Note 12. Passage graves are often closed by so-called 'porthole stones'.

Note 13. Bere's estimate was possibly quite incorrect; the skull may have been abnormally large; the leg bones should have been measured.

The Rev. Samuel Seyer¹⁷ also gives a short notice of Fairy Toote extracted from the same source. From all these descriptions it appears that in construction it was not unlike Stoney Littleton tumulus, but according to Bere's measurements much larger, being 43 ft. longer, about 20 ft. wider, and 2 ft. higher. It was surrounded by a dry wall about 4 ft. in height and probably still higher near the entrance. It is difficult from Bere's description and plan to make out the exact shape of the s. end of the barrow, for his drawing and plan do not agree with the measurements he gives, neither do they show any curving in of the dry walling as at Stoney Littleton and Uley in Gloucestershire, and which we believe must have occurred. The large stone Bere mentions having been discovered in the forecourt near the s. end of the barrow does not seem to have been the real entrance stone, but one placed in the forecourt midway between converging dry walls and 13 ft. distant from the actual entrance to the tomb. The real entrance stone had a hole through its centre and blocked the opening to the avenue where the unmortared walls terminated. Working through the dry walling at the E. side of this perforated stone and the trilithon against which it was resting, Bere states an opening was made into the central avenue, and that this measured 2 ft. 3 in. wide, 4 ft. high, and 9 ft. long N. to S. He says it contained a complete skeleton, and in one of his letters to the Gentleman's Magazine we are told that it was accompanied by 'several pieces of other skulls, spinal joints, and arm bones'. Bere proceeds to describe how he entered the central avenue at great risk, but could not go farther than 9 ft. because the roof had fallen in and the passage was blocked. He mentions that with the light of a candle he saw two recesses, one on either side of the avenue, and that both chambers contained several more skulls and other bones. These cells are shown in plan 3 at C and L. Bere states that they were going to clear the central avenue and use pit-props to prevent the fall of the roof, but we are not told if this proposition was carried out. In another place he says there are many skulls in each cell on both sides of the grand avenue from A to B, a statement which implies a clearance of the central passage. In cell C, besides human remains there were found the thigh bone of an ox and a red-deer tooth. Bere also records that the barrow produced neither urn, ashes, coin nor weapon'. It is to be presumed the whole tumulus within the dry walling was composed of stone with a thin covering of earth over, and a sloping bank of earth outside the wall similar to that which existed originally at Stoney Littleton.

Note 17. Seyer, History of Bristol, i, 105.

It was subsequently reproduced in Mr. Wickham's book Records by Spade and Terrier (1912). The excavations appeared to have been done without method, many of the holes had been filled in, and the human remains removed and mixed together before the writer arrived upon the scene. The bones had been sent to the late Dr. John Beddoe for examination. Dr. Beddoe's report states: 'These bones are those of several individuals differing in age and sex; unfortunately they are all so much fractured and comminuted that I cannot derive from them any certain or even probable conclusions as to stature, head-form or race type." This was sad news indeed. Some time later Mr. Wickham very truly remarked to me that it was not the first time the contents of the barrow had been disturbed >. When the original destruction of the tumulus took place no one knows, but as there were signs of quarrying and the remains of a lime-kiln in the vicinity of the s.w. end of the mound, it is quite possible that it suffered the same unfortunate fate as Fairy Toote at Nempnett and several other chambered barrows in North Somerset. The mound now is so ruined and levelled that it is impossible to tell what the size and shape of the tumulus may have been when complete; the only measurements now available are the dimensions of an area of raised ground with a rather indefinite outline, the maximum length and width of which are 115 ft. and 60 ft. respectively. The human remains apparently consisted of four skeletons, and three other groups of bones including a skull. From this it may be gathered that there were at least five burials. The approximate position of these was given me by the workmen. At the N. side of the mound there was some dry walling passing in a N.E. and s.w. direction; the men, however, could not say if this was curved or straight. Among other finds Mr. Wickham mentions four ' third brass' Roman coins, one each of Postumus, Claudius II, Constantine I, and Constantius II, dating from A.D. 259 to 300. There were also a number of fragments of Roman pottery, but how these remains became associated with the mound is not easily explained. Mr. Wickham also says, 'flint flakes abounded, one or two of which were worked up into implements such as arrow-heads and scrapers. The site where these were found was a deep channelled pit, probably once flanked with stone'. The size, shape or even the depth of this depression is not stated, neither do we know the exact position. It is sad to think that the information given in these brief notes is practically all that is known of the tumulus that at one time must have been a conspicuous feature on Charmborough Hill.

At Mount Pleasant on the northern boundary of the parish of Beckington, and 700 yds. east of Rode old church, there are the remains of a chambered tumulus, locally known as 'The Devil's Bed and Bolster'. The mound has been sadly disturbed and nearly levelled, especially over the N.E. quarter; other parts of the tumulus are fairly well defined. The maximum dimensions are 85 ft. E. and w., and 65 ft. N. and S. Nine large stones, parts of either the chambers or central corridor, remain, six standing and three recumbent. These are, roughly speaking, arranged parallel with the central line of the long diameter (see accompanying plan). One of the recumbent stones, No. 8, is nearly lost in the grass and could not be measured accurately without digging. The dimensions of the other stones are as follows:

1. Length 3 ft. 11 in., width 10 in., height 1 ft. 7 in.

2. Length 5 ft. 6 in., width 1 ft. 10 in., height 3 ft. 6 in.

3. Length 4 ft. 10 in., width 2 ft. 9 in., height 3 ft. 7 in.

4. Length 4 ft., width 3 ft. 6 in., recumbent.

5. Length 4 ft. 4 in., width 1 ft. 1 in., height 3 ft. 1 in.

6. Length 4 ft. 3 in., width 2 ft., recumbent.

7. Length 2 ft. 11 in., width 1 ft., height 2 ft. 5 in.

8. Recumbent and overgrown.

9. Length 6 ft. 5½ in., width 2 ft. 10 in., height 3 ft. 6 in.

Adjoining the side of the Radstock to Frome road and some 500 yards S.E. of the lodge of Ammerdown Park, there was a chambered tumulus at the beginning of the last century. The remains of this barrow can still be seen, a mound 2 or 3 ft. in height being clearly defined. Until a few years ago it was marked by a large wych-elm that grew on the highest part of the ground. This tree was evidently well known and of some importance, for it is shown in the Somerset 6-in. Ordnance Map, Sheet XXIX, N.E., and is called 'The Big Tree'. It was blown down during a severe gale and after a lapse of several years is still lying as it fell untouched, being allowed to gradually decay away. It has not been removed, the writer was recently informed, because it is on a burial-place. The circumference of the trunk about 4 ft. above ground-level measured 13 ft. 6 in. The destruction of the tumulus took place in or about 1820 when the new Frome road was constructed, and it appears that the s.w. margin of the mound reached as far as the hedge—now bordering the highway, or even extended beyond this to the verge at the road-side. This is shown by the hedge bank being slightly raised above the general level as it passes over a section of the mound. Skinner says in his diary: "I have before noticed in my journals that a large tumulus on Buckland Down had three stele or upright stones placed so as to form a triangle. They were, as my informant said (who assisted in breaking the stones for the road), as high as a man on horse-back. That is, about the height of that at Orchardleigh." When visiting the site recently the writer measured the mound. The N.W. and S.E., and N.E. and S.W. diameters were respectively 125 ft. and 110 ft. The latter measurement being made up to the hedge bordering the road is no doubt less by at least 10 ft. the original diameter.

We have been unable to obtain any other information regarding the construction of this barrow.