Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Two Bronze Age round barrows at Whiteheath, Hollingbourne. Excavations in 1842 located primary Bronze Age cremations and secondary Anglo-Saxon inhumation and cremations. Grave goods including shield bosses, spearheads, knives and beads were recovered. Field investigations during the early 1960s located no traces of the barrows.

The site lieson a gentle north-east facing slope. OD 50-55m.

Monument Types

• ROUND BARROW (ROUND BARROW, Bronze Age - 2350 BC to 701 BC)
• CREMATION (CREMATION, Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 410 AD to 1065 AD)
• INHUMATION (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 410 AD to 1065 AD)

Associated Finds

• PYGMY CUP (Early Bronze Age to Middle Bronze Age - 2200 BC to 1501 BC)
• COLLARED URN (Early Bronze Age to Middle Bronze Age - 1800 BC to 1501 BC)
• BEAD (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 410 AD to 599 AD)
• KNIFE (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 410 AD to 599 AD)
• SHERD (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 410 AD to 599 AD)
• SHIELD BOSS (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 410 AD to 599 AD)
• SPEARHEAD (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 410 AD to 599 AD)

Full description

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[`A' TQ 8199 5481; `B' TQ 8201 5473] Two barrows excavated by the Rev. Beale Poste at Whiteheath in 1842. Beale Poste's maunuscripts, in the Maidstone Museum, show one barrow [A] as straddling the Maidstone - Ashford road just north west of the South entrance to Hollingbourne Union Workhouse, and the other [B] as being approximately 200 ft. west of bench mark 166.5 [See O.S. 6" 1909 edit.]. In barrow [B] late Bronze Age and Saxon burial urns containing cremated human remains were found together with, two iron shield bosses and spearheads. Also discovered on this site were a large number of glass, amber and clay beads. (1) There are now no remains of these barrows to be seen. The field in which `B' is sited appears to have been worked in the past for sand. The finds listed by Authority 1 and presumed lost were lately found to have gone to Leeds Castle where they remained till 1928, when they were put in store in Maidstone. They will shortly be deposited in the Museum there. (2) The finds were purchased by Mr. V.J. Newbury at a Leeds Castle sale in 1962, except for the iron objects which have gone to Maidstone Museum. (3) Additional bibliographhy. (4-14)

Andrew Richardson, 2000, Gazetteer of Anglo-Saxon Cemeteries and Burial-Sites in Kent (Unpublished document). SKE29253.

<1> M S S Memo Relating to Opening the Barrow on Whitewash (Rev Beale Poste 26.7.1842 to 18.12.1843) (OS Card Reference). SKE46224.

<2> Arch Cant 65 1952 160-66 (L R A Grove) (OS Card Reference). SKE35398.

<3> F1 ASP 24-Nov-61 (OS Card Reference). SKE42267.

<4> Inf V J Newbury The Old Forge Upper Hollingbourne Nr Maidstone (OS Card Reference). SKE44365.

<5> F2 ASP 26-Jun-63 (OS Card Reference). SKE43174.

<6> Arch Cant 92 1976 232-33 (D B Kelly) (OS Card Reference). SKE36086.

<7> JBAA 3 1848 248 (OS Card Reference). SKE44930.

<8> A Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Pottery of the Pagan Period 1977 1 257 301 2 fig 213 279 (J N L Myres) (OS Card Reference). SKE32759.

<9> JBAA 3 1848 248 323 (OS Card Reference). SKE44931.

<10> A Gazeteer of Early Anglo-Saxon Burial Sites 1964 124 (A Meany) (OS Card Reference). SKE32783.

<11> The Arts in Early Eng 4 1915 741 (G Baldwin Brown) (OS Card Reference). SKE50090.

<12> VCH Kent 1 1908 387 (I C Gould) (OS Card Reference). SKE50881.

<13> Field report for monument TQ 85 SW 5 - November, 1961 (Bibliographic reference). SKE4481.

<14> Field report for monument TQ 85 SW 5 - June, 1963 (Bibliographic reference). SKE4482.

Sources and further reading