Ancient Monuments

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Round cairn 780m south west of Offerton House

A Scheduled Monument in Offerton, Derbyshire

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Coordinates

Latitude: 53.3222 / 53°19'19"N

Longitude: -1.691 / 1°41'27"W

OS Eastings: 420677.786822

OS Northings: 380624.74427

OS Grid: SK206806

Mapcode National: GBR JZM0.PT

Mapcode Global: WHCCN.0R1J

Entry Name: Round cairn 780m south west of Offerton House

Scheduled Date: 10 May 1963

Last Amended: 16 April 1999

Source: Historic England

Source ID: 1016624

English Heritage Legacy ID: 31246

County: Derbyshire

Civil Parish: Offerton

Traditional County: Derbyshire

Lieutenancy Area (Ceremonial County): Derbyshire

Church of England Parish: Hathersage St Michael and All Angels

Church of England Diocese: Derby

Details

The monument includes a cairn situated on gently shelving moorland. It
measures 13m by 11m and stands approximately 1m high. The centre of the cairn
has been robbed of stone and there is evidence for an encircling drystone
kerb. A low platform extends from the cairn to the south east measuring 6m by
3.5m.
The cairn is interpreted as a Bronze Age burial cairn and is situated close to
evidence for contemporary settlement and agriculture.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features,
considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

The East Moors in Derbyshire includes all the gritstone moors east of the
River Derwent. It covers an area of 105 sq km, of which around 63% is open
moorland and 37% is enclosed. As a result of recent and on-going
archaeological survey, the East Moors area is becoming one of the best
recorded upland areas in England. On the enclosed land the archaeological
remains are fragmentary, but survive sufficiently well to show that early
human activity extended beyond the confines of the open moors.
On the open moors there is significant and well-articulated evidence over
extensive areas for human exploitation of the gritstone uplands from the
Neolithic to the post-medieval periods. Bronze Age activity accounts for the
most intensive use of the moorlands. Evidence for it includes some of the
largest and best preserved field systems and cairnfields in northern England
as well settlement sites, numerous burial monuments, stone circles and other
ceremonial remains which, together, provide a detailed insight into life in
the Bronze Age. Also of importance is the well preserved and often visible
relationship between the remains of earlier and later periods since this
provides an insight into successive changes in land use through time.
A large number of the prehistoric sites on the moors, because of their rarity
in a national context, excellent state of preservation and inter-connections,
will be identified as nationally important.

Round cairns are prehistoric funerary monuments dating to the Bronze Age
(c.2,000-700 BC). They were constructed as stone mounds covering single or
multiple burials. These burials may be placed within the mound in stone-lined
compartment called cists. They are a relatively common feature of the uplands
and are the stone equivalents of the earthen round barrows of the lowlands.
Their considerable variation in form and longevity as a monument type provide
important information on the diversity of beliefs and social organisation
amongst prehistoric communities. They are particularly representative of
their period and a substantial proportion of surviving examples are considered
worthy of protection.
The round cairn 780m south west of Offerton House, although robbed of some
stone, will retain undisturbed buried remains. Its complex structure,
including evidence for a drystone kerb and platform extension, is unusual and
important to our understanding of Bronze Age funerary monuments.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Barnatt, J W, 'Derbyshire Archaeological Journal' in Bronze Age Remains on the East Moors of the Peak District, , Vol. 106, (1986)
Other
Barnatt, J W, Peak District Barrow Survey, 1989, unpublished survey

Source: Historic England

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