Ashridge Bell barrow on Moneybury Hill, Ashridge Estate

Summary

Well preserved Bronze Age Bell Barrow on the west facing escarpment of Moneybury Hill.The barrow mound survives as a well-defined roughly circular mound 25m in diameter and stands up to 3m high on its west side and 2m high on its east. The top of the mound has been disturbed at some time in the distant past so that it is now concave to a depth of 0.4m. Surrounding the central mound is a sloping berm or platform 2.5m wide which separates the edge of the mound from the ditch. A surrounding ditch, from which the material was quarried to construct the mound, survives as an earthwork around the north and south sides only where it averages 4m wide and 0.3m deep; elsewhere it is buried and overlain with modern trackways but survives as a buried feature of similar width.

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Monument Types

Description

The following is taken from the English Heritage scheduled monument description:

The monument includes a bell barrow situated on the west-facing escarpment of Moneybury Hill. The barrow mound survives as a well-defined roughly circular mound 25m in diameter and stands up to 3m high on its west side and 2m high on its east. The top of the mound has been disturbed at some time in the distant past so that it is now concave to a depth of 0.4m. Surrounding the central mound is a sloping berm or platform 2.5m wide which separates the edge of the mound from the ditch; such a berm is characteristic of this class of monument. A surrounding ditch, from which the material was quarried to construct the mound, survives as an earthwork around the north and south sides only where it averages 4m wide and 0.3m deep; elsewhere it is buried and overlain with modern trackways but survives as a buried feature of similar width.

Bell barrows, the most visually impressive form of round barrow, are funerary monuments dating to the early and middle Bronze Age, with most examples belonging to the period 1600-1300 bc. They occur either in isolation or in round barrow cemeteries and were constructed as single or multiple mounds covering burials, often in pits, and surrounded by an enclosure ditch. The burials are frequently accompanied by weapons, personal ornaments, and pottery and appear to be those of aristocratic individuals, usually men. Bell barrows (particularly multiple barrows) are rare nationally,with less than 250 known examples, most of which are in Wessex. Their richness in terms of grave goods provides evidence for chronological and cultural links amongst early prehistoric communities over most of southern and eastern England as well as providing an insight into their beliefs and social organisation. As a particularly rare form of round barrow, all identified bell barrows would normally be considered to be of national importance.

Despite some disturbance of the central area of the barrow mound, most of the Moneybury bell barrow survives intact. There is also potential for the recovery of environmental material, relating to the landscape in which the monument was constructed, from both the old land surface sealed beneath the mound and from the ditch fill.

(M Solik)

The following description of the site is taken from the old Ordance Survey record card (SP 91 SE 7)

(SP 9711 1361) Tumulus on Moneybury Hill circa 60 ft in diameter. Condition fairly good. SP 971137 Round barrow on Moneybury Hill probably Saxon. Suggestion of a berm. Diameter 30 paces, height 6 to 8 ft. Coin (a) of Cunobelin found (a duplication of coin from the hoard; SP 91 SE2 NT SMR no.?? ). A piece of Samian was found in the make-up of the tumulus, near the surface.
A barrow situated at the north end of Moneybury Hill and under close woodland.

It measures 25.0m in diameter SW-NE and 24.0m transversly, and survives to a height of 3.0m on the west side and 2.0m on the east. The top is concave, 0.4m deep and this is the probable result of excavation.

There is evidence of a berm and ditch suggesting this is a bell-barrow, although only surviving in outline and mutilated on the E & W by track.

The following rejection of the site as a possible windmill site was provided in an e mail of 3/6/2014 sent by Ashridge volunteer and historian John Trimmer:

'The supposed windmill at Moneybury Hill did not happen.
The attached map from Seller of 1676 shows the mill named as Atnall Mill, with a settlement nearby at Atnall! A later map records this as Arnold. The only link we have today in the area is at Brook's Statnall Wood. This was called Brook's Tatnall Wood in the 1870's. The site of the windmill would probably have been at SP953129, because the 1830 survey of Aldbury shows a windmill piece at this spot.'

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