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I know some people may be interested in this and it is limited to Kent here but it could be a something people may want to visit or find out about:
The chilling story behind the ancient mounds you can see all over Kent
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That’s fascinating, thank you Marica. I had no idea there were so many scattered across the county. The Tonbridge group (usually known as the ‘Medway Megaliths’) are slightly different as these aren’t Bowl Barrows but Long Barrows, or rather the remains of them – all that’s left are the supporting stones as the mounds themselves have long since vanished or been ploughed out. Kits Coty is magnificent, but my personal favourite is Coldrum Stones at Trottiscliffe, which doesn’t seem to be on the list!
I really like the individual links to the Historic England listing, very useful thank you. I can see some exploration ahead once regulations permit!
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I am so glad it has been of use. I saw it today on a local newsletter and thought someone would find it useful. I think if my husband had still been alive, it would have been interesting to go and visit these places ourselves.
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Yes, I would never have spotted that. I’ve seen barrows down on the south downs when walking in Sussex, but never thought Kent might have a good number as well, I’ve only seen the megalithic remains. You don’t hear much about Kent’s prehistory, it’s usually Roman and Saxon times that get focused on.
That must have been something you enjoyed doing together then? It really is a great pleasure to do that and just share in a sense of land and time. I do hope you still get to visit them.
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We never got to these, Colin. He was disabled for 10 years and working hard the rest of the time before that. It would have been a nice thing to do in retirement if he had still been around though it is not something he would have had interest in but he may still have enjoyed it .
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I am sorry to hear that Marica. Yes, there is certainly tranquillity in visiting them, even if you have no particular interest, and they were often created in places with stunning views. And, of course, we can be fairly sure that the long barrows, at least, were a place used by communities to remember those who went before.
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That’s exactly what I’ve always found so magnetic, even growing up. Even when there was nothing to see but a few mounds in the grass I would stand and picture things in my mind’s eye. Probably pestered my family to take me many places they didn’t want to go!
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The West Kennet Long Barrow in Wiltshire is 250 feet long. The so-called metonic cycle of the moon is 251 months long so the barrow could be approximating this.
But what that would have to do with deceased people is another question!-
The long barrow at Belas Knap
may be a phallus
compare with the cerna abbas giant
I think that the idea would be that the dead are reborn and being associated with the the start of life
Long barrows with no human remains may just be fertility symbols. -
That’s an interesting interpretation (Belas Knapp is still on my ‘to be visited list’. A lot of long barrows were visible across great distances. It’s difficult to associate places of death with rebirth, but there are some indications that rebirth might have been part of their philosophy.
Of course, the Cerne Abbas giant has now been proven to be Saxon, but even here the associations are opaque.
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That was interesting as was the lost villages of Kent… My friends used to live on the road that the Coldrum Barrow is on until they moved near to me last year. I walk in Clowes Wood as that is local to me, but I had no idea there was a barrow there!
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That’s an extra interest for you when you go that way , Gill
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Well I realised that when I read it. .Maybe I should sort out a car tour of the lost hamlets of Kent along with the barrows. The sat nav in my car allows me to set up a tour – taking me from a to b to c and so on. I quite often used it in the past to do that … choose village to village to village and ignore motorways, and go down all the country lanes. So pretty. Then when had enough, just set it to home to include motorways! Its great, especially as dear Rob was absolute rubbish at navigation as well as driving !! Not being unkind, but when someone drives in 3rd gear instead of 5th it does become quite difficult to ignore! Anyway, he loved going out for a drive.. so thats what we did.. poodling along at a slow pace, passing fields and country cottages!!!
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That is lovely, Gill ! Both Alan and my ex husband both liked driving so I was very lucky as they would go all over the place. Me, not so much! I can’t even work out Google maps let alone plan a route. I got lost using an old Satnav (I am a lost cause) But give me a paper map, I may be ok ! Not so easy driving with that though . We had Samantha’s voice from Sex & the City on our satnav and some of the comments if we went the wrong way were hilarious 🙂
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When we had our first sat nav we were going through the various voices that he might like. He fancied Nicole the french girl because he loved the accent. I had to point out to him that he wouldn’t understand her though because she also spoke in french! lol… he was disappointed – but he wasn’t going to get anywhere knowing La plume de ma tante, ovre la fenetre/porte and ferme la fenetre/porte! … we had such a giggle about it .. but it had to be Tom instead cos he didn’t like the idea of Jane!
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It was funny! Actually there are so many funny stories about my husband I think I could write a book. You saying about the french phrase book reminds me of when we returned from spending a week with friends who had a place in France. I did A level french, and although my language skills were very rusty they were a lot better than my friends and Rob. My friends’ next door neighbours didn’t speak much english, but between them all they had developed their own franglais which was a mixture of the odd word, a lot of ‘errrrs’ and hand signals – so much so that when they became stuck trying to explain something to each other, they turned to me to help and I had to admit that I didn’t have a clue what they were talking about.. neither in english nor in french!
Anyway much of that holiday was spent with me translating french to english and english to french, so Rob became very accustomed to hearing the accent around him as well as the language. So much so that when we arrived at the port in calais, Rob handed over our tickets, and when he gave them back to Rob he said, in his best french accent ….. ‘sankoo’ … he genuinely thought he had just spoken french to the man!!! No idea if the story translates well.. but it has amused me to remember it!
What on earth this has to do with ancient burial mounds I have absolutely no idea!!! lol
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It’s also known that the Anglo Saxons often buried around Neolithic mounds. I just love archaeology.
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I found out about this whilst watching time team amongst other programmes. Phil Harding of Wessex Archaeology pointed this out whilst digging on Salisbury Plain with disabled veterans.
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