The Rage to Rake in Dust and Ashes: A Socio-economic Context for the Excavation of Prehistoric Barrows in the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

Nineteenth-century barrow-diggers have been stereotyped as village parsons and schoolmasters who decimated the prehistoric monuments of England. This study of Derbyshire and Gloucestershire identifies who they were, and provides a social context for their work. Although unsurprisingly drawn mainly from the middle classes, they range from the intellectuals of the age to local curates, doctors and farmers. The booming English rural economy of the mid-Victorian period allowed many to participate in the activity, often for a social or even political purpose; it is also clear that agricultural improvement was the catalyst for many of these barrow excavations.