Barrows in the Anglo-Saxon Land Charters

Abstract

The Saxons used beorh for prehistoric barrows and hlæw for their own barrows, but pleased themselves which term to use for prehistoric barrows containing intrusive Saxon burials (e.g. Rough Barrow, Cheselbourne 8b, Dorset; Cwicelmes Low, Ardley, Oxon.; the better known Cwichelmes Low (East Hendred, Oxon. ex Berkshire) is mentioned not in a charier but in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Long barrow Swell IV, Glos., contained Saxon intrusive burials.There are more than twenty rough barrows but only one rough low (in Chetwode-Hillesden, Buckinghamshire, S 544), implying that the Saxons normally kept their own barrows tidy but did not bother much about those of earlier date.They sometimes distinguished between long and round barrows (e.g. Long Barrow, Swell IV, Glos.; ‘the barrow which lies between the two long barrows’, Wonston, Hants. They never distinguished between round barrows of bowl, bell, disc and saucer types.Scrutiny of the charters has led to the discovery of a few barrows previously unknown to the Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, e.g. Buckland Newton I, Dorset; Cheselbourne 17, Dorset; Tetbury Upton 3, Glos.As the charters were written more than a thousand years ago they recorded many barrows long before they had been reduced to their present sorry state by ploughing and other agencies.