Surrey Archaeological Collections
Surrey Archaeological Society, 2003. (updated 2023) https://doi.org/10.5284/1000221. How to cite using this DOI
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- ADS Collection: 379
- DOI:https://doi.org/10.5284/1000221
- How to cite using this DOI
SURREY ARCHAEOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS
Surrey barrows 1934-1986: a reappraisal
LESLIE GRINSELL
In the post-1974 county of Surrey there is record of the present or former existence of one long barrow at Badshot (Farnham I), approximately 100 Bronze Age round barrows, and 30-35 Anglo-Saxon barrows.
The long barrow, discovered and excavated in 1936, is the only knoWn example between Preston Candover, Hampshire and the Medway group of megalithic tombs. The Bronze Age round barrows include a triple bell-barrow at Elstead, a bell-barrow (now destroyed) recently excavated at Wanborough, and others at Wotton and on Horsell Common where there is also a disc-barrow: these examples provide evidence of an eastward extension of the Wessex culture into west Surrey. Deverel-Rimbury urns from barrows near Sunningdale, Worplesdon and Wonersh likewise show an extension into the west Surrey heathlands of the Deverel-Rimbury phase centred in southern Wessex.
The Anglo-Saxon barrows are doubtless the survivors of an originally much larger number in view of the facility with which they can be destroyed on account of their normally small size and slight elevation. Those on Merrow Down, Guildford, excavated by Pitt-Rivers, contained cremations. One of the Gally Hills, Banstead, contained the richly furnished extended interment of a warrior.
Since the author's survey of 1934 was published, several barrows there described have been destroyed. Others have been discovered partly by fieldwork and partly by air photography, which has revealed many 'ring-ditches', at least some of which are the sites of levelled barrows, in the gravel-extraction areas of north-west Surrey, and a group of ploughed-out barrows near Leatherhead.
