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Marlborough Mound

Marlborough Mound
Marlborough, Wiltshire, England
Marlborough Mound (top) illustrated in William Stukeley's Itinerarium Curiosum.
Marlborough Mound
Coordinates	51.416573°N 1.737374°W / 51.416573; -1.737374
Type	Artifical Mound
Height	19m
Site information
Owner	Marlborough College
Open to the public	Private Property
Condition	Earthworks remain as well as restored grotto and concrete slab at summit

Marlborough Mound is a Neolithic monument near Silbury Hill in the English county of Wiltshire. Standing 19 metres tall it is second only to Silbury Hill in terms of height for such a monument. Modern study situates the construction date around 2400BC.

Marlborough Mound is part of a complex of Neolithic monuments in this area, which includes the Avebury Ring, Silbury Hill, and the West Kennet Long Barrow. It is located close to the confluence of the River Kennet and currently lies within the grounds of Marlborough College.

Since construction, the mound has functioned as the motte for a Norman Castle, a garden feature for a stately home as well as the site for a water tower within Marlborough College. In recent years there has been renewed interest in the site pertaining to its restoration and preservation as a culturally and historically significant site in Wiltshire. Additionally, its relation to the nearby Silbury Hill has generated scholarly interest in how the mound constitutes part of a larger archaeological complex in Wiltshire.

Structure and Location

The River Kennet near Axford.

The mound is located on the western side of Marlborough within the grounds of Marlborough College close to the confluence of the nearby River Kennett. Other notable sites in close proximity to the mound include Silbury Hill, Hatfield Barrow, Sherrington Mound, Manton Barrow, and Marlborough Common barrow cemetery.

The mound is over 18 metres tall from the present ground surface and its summit has a height of 149.76 metres OD. The basal diameter is 83 metres and the 31 metres across the top. Additionally, the structure of the mound has changed over time, often to accommodate the various functions that it has served. By 1654, it had been integrated into the grounds of the stately home built adjacent to it. The occupants, the Seymour family landscaped the mound and cut or recut a spiral path that progressed around the mound from the base to the summit. The walkway is a little over 1.5 metres wide requiring four circuits of the mound to summit it. Additionally, concrete steps are built into the south side of the mound, allowing modern access.

Purpose

The original purpose of Marlborough Mound is unclear however there is wide historical coverage of how the mound has been used through time. A prevailing local legend was that the mound was the site of Merlin's burial given the motto of the town of Marlborough 'ubi nunc sapientis ossa Merlini' (where now are the bones of the wise Merlin).William Stukely, the English antiquarian believed a Roman fort once occupied the site where the mound is located based on the finding of Roman coins. Roman artefacts have been found by subsequent investigations by A.S Eve in 1892 and H.C Bretnall in 1938.

The presence of a medieval tower constructed from timber and later stone for which the mound served as the motte has been well documented and was ruinous by 1541.

After this, the mound was developed by the families who occupied the property. The Seymours excavated a cavern and built a shell grotto as well as a spiral road to the summit.

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the mound served as the site for a water tank for Marlborough College which has since been removed.

Interior of the Shell Grotto built into the side of Marlborough Mound

Investigations

Most recorded investigation and speculation about the mound have occurred from the late 18^th century to the present day. The methodologies used by investigators have varied from the use of traditional excavation to modern coring. One of the first investigations and made by William Stukeley in 1776 who wrote in the Itinerarium Curiosum of the recovery of Roman Coins at the site.

The nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are characterised by traditional archaeological techniques. The hypothesis that Marlborough Mound was archaeologically connected with Silbury Hill was first posited in 1821 by Richard C. Hoare in his publication The Ancient History of Wiltshire where he compared the two sites within a larger archaeological complex. Additionally, Hoare suggested that the site was of prehistoric origin. In 1892, a publication of recent excavations at Marlborough College included an antler found in the slopes of the mound. Additional antlers were found in the years afterward by H.C Brentnall, a schoolmaster at the college and fuelled Hoare’s original case for prehistoric origins of the mound in opposition to the idea that it was a burial site for Merlin or constructed solely to accommodate the Norman Castle. Brentnall suggested that the impregnation of chalk on the antlers made it unlikely that they could have been buried subsequent to the mounds construction. Additionally, two Roman coins were recovered from his ‘castle ditch’.

As the twentieth century progressed, the finding of medieval artefacts as well as a review of previously assembled evidence caused there to be some questioning of the prehistoric origins. In 1955 and 1956, excavations on the western side found refuse from the medieval period. These pieces included Norman pottery. Additionally, as late as 1997, it was concluded that the mound fit within the size range of a medieval motte. An analysis of available evidence concluded that without additional findings the mound was ‘essentially a medieval construction’.

In the late twentieth to early twenty first centuries, investigation into the mound has continued. The Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England surveyed the mound in 1999. The Marlborough Mound began to be thought of as a possible comparative site to Silbury Hill in 2008. Extracting dateable material from the mound was thought to be best achieved by taking cores from the mound. Geotechnical Engineering Ltd facilitated this operation and removed six cores, two taken from bore holes made at the summit. In a paper authored by Jim Leary, Matthew Canti, David Field, Peter Fowler and Gill Campbell, the age of the mound was dated to the second half of the third millennium. The terminus post quem from the date of construction was found to be 2580-2470 cal BC.

Restoration

The restoration of the mound is in part a response to the state of disrepair of the mound since its more aesthetically pleasing appearance as part of Lady Hertford’s garden as well as the renewal of scholarly interest in the mound and the site. In the 1980s work commenced on restoring the shell grotto which was supervised by local residents and assisted by pupils of Marlborough College.

Marlborough Mound Trust

The Marlborough Mound Trust was founded in 2000 and is the main financial backer of the restoration of the mound. The trust strives to meet the following main objectives: "(i) restore, conserve, preserve and maintain the Mound at Marlborough College. (ii)educate the public about the archaeological and historical significance and merits of the Mound at Marlborough College." Additionally, the Trust is a key financier of restorations of the mound with declaring ts expenditure as £87'600 for the 2018 financial year. It also supports academic investigations into the mound and funded the coring project that took place in October 2010.^[1]

References

Category:Hills of Wiltshire