Money Hill Round Barrow Cemetery

Summary

The site includes the buried and earthwork remains of a Bronze Age barrow cemetery.

Reasons for Designation

The Bronze Age barrow cemetery at Money Hill is scheduled for the following principal reasons:

Rarity:

* barrow cemeteries are rare nationally and one of very few monument types to offer us insights into the lives and deaths of prehistoric communities in England.

Survival:

* as a group of barrows visible through geophysical survey, aerial photographs and LiDAR imagery, which survive as soil/crop marks and in some cases as upstanding earthwork remains.

Diversity:

* the size of the individual barrows is varied representing a range of approaches to Bronze Age funerary ritual and may suggest use over a long period of time.

Potential:

* for the buried deposits which retain considerable potential to provide evidence relating to social organisation and demographics, cultural associations, human development, disease, diet, and death rituals. Buried environmental evidence can also inform us about the landscape in which the barrows were constructed.

Group value:

* for its close proximity to the scheduled multi-phased settlement site at Manor Farm (National Heritage List for England (NHLE( entry 1006809) and various other non-designated heritage assets across the landscape.

History

Round barrow cemeteries date to the Bronze Age (around 2000-700 BC). They comprise closely spaced groups of up to 30 round barrows - rubble or earthen mounds covering single or multiple burials. Most cemeteries developed over a considerable period of time, often many centuries, and in some cases acted as a focus for burials as late as the early medieval period. They exhibit considerable diversity of burial rite, plan and form, frequently including several different types of round barrow, occasionally associated with earlier long barrows. Where large scale investigation has been undertaken around them, contemporary or later "flat" burials between the barrow mounds have often been revealed.

Round barrow cemeteries occur across most of lowland Britain, with a marked concentration in Wessex. In some cases, they are clustered around other important contemporary monuments such as henges. Often occupying prominent locations, they are a major historic element in the modern landscape, whilst their diversity and their longevity as a monument type provide important information on the variety of beliefs and social organisation amongst early prehistoric communities. They are particularly representative of their period and a substantial proportion of surviving or partly surviving examples are considered worthy of protection.

A barrow at Money Hill was identified as a ‘Tumulus’ from at least the 1st edition Ordnance Survey Map of 1890. The known number of barrows was increased to five after four other ring ditches were identified from aerial photographs (APs) in 1961. With improvements in aerial photography and interpretation techniques a further AP survey carried out in late-C20 and early-C21 identified the site as a barrow cemetery including at least seven barrows of varying size, of which some are visible on 2010 Lidar as low, spread, earthwork mounds. Others survive as cropmarks and soil marks. Recent drone and terrestrial geophysical surveys carried out by Wessex Archaeology and Cotswold Archaeology respectively, in preparation of the East-West Rail development, has demonstrated that around 10 ring ditches survive as below ground remains with at least three retaining low, spread mounds bringing the total of known barrows to 11.

The barrow cemetery sits within a multi-period landscape. Approximately a kilometer south-east of the barrow cemetery is a multi-phased settlement site at Manor Farm, which was scheduled in 1978 (NHLE entry 1006809) . When partially excavated in 1989 and 1991 the site revealled Bronze Age activity including ring ditches, some of which surrounded cremation burials, as well as evidence of Bronze Age settlement all of which may be closely related to the barrow cemetery on Money Hill.

Approximately 500m to the south of the largest group of 7 barrows is the crop mark and soil mark remains of what is believed to be an Iron Age/Romano British settlement. The settlement is visible from APs as a series of disjointed linear ditches defining a network of adjoining rectilinear enclosures. What appears to be a double ditched trackway runs east to west on the south side of the settlement. Sitting within the settlement, and respected by it is one of the barrows, the smallest of the barrow cemetery.


Adjacent to the northernmost barrows is a clunch quarry, believed to have been in use since the C13 and which supplied stone for the building of Cambridge Colleges. Also, surrounding the barrow cemetery, are extensive remains of post-medieval field boundaries, defined by banks with some ditches evident. These are thought to have been medieval in origin, possibly plough headlands with flanking drainage or construction trenches. To the south-east of the cemetery is an extensive area of coprolite workings covering an area of approximately 20ha which we know were worked from at least 1867 until the late C20.

Chapel Hill, to the west of the barrow cemetery, is a road which runs roughly north to south, taking its name from the site of a chapel believed to have been located to the west of the road, on a site marked on the 1890 OS map as Chapel Bush. An ancient trackway known as Mare Way is thought to run along the chalk ridge from Ermine Street past Wimpole and over Chapel Hill Road to the site of the Chapel. This was a pilgrimage site until the C20 and Christian services are still held there at sunrise on Easter Morning. The exact date of the routeway is unknown but it is thought to have origins in the Bronze Age or Iron Age.

A collection of surface finds recovered by metal detectorists is an eclectic mix of various dates reflecting the continuity and change in the use of the landscape.

Although all the recorded historic finds and features add to the interest and understanding of the archaeological landscape only the barrows are included in the scheduling.

Details

PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS: the site includes the buried and earthwork remains of a Bronze Age barrow cemetery. The cropmark ring ditches indicate the buried remains of 11 barrows of which at least 3 are visible as low earthworks and show clearly on Lidar imagery.

DESCROPTION: Money Hill forms the eastern end of a chalk ridge separating the villages of Haslingfield and Barrington. There are distant views in all directions except along the ridge to the west. The name comes from the Money Hill Tumulus marked on the 1890 OS map.

The cemetery consists of approximately 11 ring ditches representing barrows probably dating to the Bronze Age. The barrows are dispersed across the area of assessment with a concentrated group of 7 on the highest ridge (around 50m AOD) to the northern end, with others scattered to the south and east between the 45m and 20m contours. The barrows vary in size from 55m to 20m in diameter with all but one displaying evidence of a single ring ditch. The smallest (20m in diameter) located within, and respected by, the Iron Age/Romano-British settlement at grid reference (TL4069050900) is visible with a double ring ditch and is similar in size and form to its nearest ring ditch to the north-west. Given its location in the landscape, the ring ditch within the settlement maybe be interpreted as the remains of a roundhouse but its form is completely different to the other features in the settlement which are generally rectilinear, and appear to respect the ring ditch, suggesting it may be an earlier feature around which the settlement grew. Its similarity to the barrow at grid reference TL4059051146) also supports the barrow interpretation.

At least three barrows in the northern group can be seen to survive as earthworks on LiDAR imagery; they are evident as low spread mounds and can be seen on the ground surface as soil marks. The chalky mound material is quite different to the surrounding field. Although spread by agricultural activity the survival of a mound of any height adds to the importance of the individual barrows and the cemetery as a whole.

Geophysical survey carried out by Wessex Archaeology in 2025 identifies potential archaeological features within the ring ditches of more than one of the barrows possibly representing burial activity.

Valuable archaeological deposits will be preserved in the mound (where they survive), on the buried ground surface and in the fills of the ditch. These have the potential to provide rare information concerning the dating and construction of the barrows and the sequence of mortuary practices at the site. The same deposits may also retain environmental evidence illustrating the nature of the contemporary landscape in which the barrows were constructed.

Collectively the ring ditches represent a discrete barrow cemetery with other features representing later phases in the use and respect of the landscape.

EXTENT OF SCHEDULING: the 11 barrows are scheduled within 5 areas of protection which include the barrow ring ditches, mounds (where they survive) and includes a 5m buffer zone considered necessary for the support and preservation of the monument. The area between the barrows in the northernmost cluster has been included to provide protection for any flat burials between the crop mark and earthwork features. 

EXCLUSIONS: all drain covers and pylons are excluded from the scheduling, but the ground beneath them is included.

Sources

Books and journals
RCHME, , An Inventory of the Historical Monuments of Cambridgeshire Vol. 1 West Cambridgeshire. (1968),

Other
Ordnance Survey Historic maps 1:10560 published from 1890
Cambridgeshire Historic Environment Record (HER) 04723, 09651, 04720, MCB 5699 - accessed June and July 2025.
Environment Agency Lidar 2017 DTM to 1m

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