Netherwitton B

Trip No.76  Entry No.3  Date Added: 28th May 2018
Site Type: Round Cairn Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 26th May 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Netherwitton Round Cairn B: This cairn is located in a really lovely spot, on what was a small promontory, one side forming an old bank of the River Font, the river having changed course many years ago. We walked past this without realising this was the second cairn on the map, both saying: “That looks distinctly like a cairn”, then realising after I’d photographed it that it was the second Bronze Age cairn mentioned on Pastscape. Whilst small, it's a really nice example of a cairn, and the internal structure can be seen where a hawthorn tree grows out of its south west side, and animals have rubbed the earth away. This cairn has been apparently undisturbed by the antiquarians. I wonder why? Curious.

Netherwitton Hall

Trip No.76  Entry No.5  Date Added: 28th May 2018
Site Type: Round Cairn Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 26th May 2018. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 2 Access 5

Log Text: Round Cairn near Netherwitton Hall: Pulling up by the side of the road, taking the spot of a car that had just driven off northwards, this field was chock full of sheep and lambs, with the gate tightly tied with string in a ‘gordian knot’. Usually, I’d spent time untying the string, but as the mound didn’t look very exciting, I photographed it through the gate. Whilst it’s recorded on the OS map as a cairn, both HE and Pastscape wonder if this is actually a cairn or not, even though it’s scheduled as a round barrow.

Five Ashes Cairn (Netherwitton)

Trip No.76  Entry No.1  Date Added: 27th May 2018
Site Type: Round Cairn Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 26th May 2018. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Five Ashes Cairn, Netherwitton: From St. Giles’s Church, we drove back through Netherwitton, taking the right hand turn which runs northwards, to the west of the meandering River Font. Parking at NZ 09891 90457, next to the entrance to the field with the footpath running through, we set off across the mowed footpath. This section of shorter grass petered out after about 100metres. Five Ashes Cairn was visible to our west after about 300metres. There was a gate into the cairn field, technically trespassing, but the area with, and around, the cairn, had been left clear of crops, so we kept to the field edge and made our way the 50m or so across to the cairn.

At this time, a whole ribbon of small planes began to fly across, one at a time, about 30 seconds apart. I lost count after 20, then came the hang gliders and microlights, the some more small planes. They were all heading roughly from north east to south west, and we haven’t been able to find out where they came from, or where they were going to, although the Borders Gliding Club isn’t that far away from this location, near Milfield and Maelmin.

If we hadn’t have known this what we were looking at, and that it was marked on the OS map, anyone could have been forgiven for thinking this was just a farmer’s mound/junk heap with straw bales and other items left on its north eastern side.

This cairn looked quite large, with a steeper bank on its western side. It looks as if it has been crudely excavated, with various lumps and bumps under the long, tussocky grass (and lots of short, fierce nettles at ankle level!) over the mound.

Ewesley Enclosure

Trip No.76  Entry No.6  Date Added: 27th May 2018
Site Type: Misc. Earthwork Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 26th May 2018. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Ewesley Defended Settlement, Northumberland: This was our last stop of the day, and it was really warm. There is a permissive footpath which runs along the dismantled railway line, although we drove past and had to retrace our steps to find it. The footpath sign is on a gate at approx.. NZ 05932 92605, just south of the railway bridge, and a small bridge over a stream, on the B642, before the farm to the north of the bridge.

Be warned, as the ‘footpath’ is really non-existent, and if we’d have strayed off the higher ground, we’d have needed waders to cross certain parts. As it was, we found an old boundary bank running north-south across a fence line and followed that to the drier side on the other side of a burn/drainage ditch.

The southern part of the structure can be clearly seen from the road, and it’s clearly a settlement of some kind, although why it’s southern been built on a slope, I’m not sure. There is an outer bank and ditch, which we followed up to where the settlement is cut by the railway line, and we found the easiest way down and across, up to its northern side, where some of the inner banks remain.

This is certainly a settlement of some kind; we couldn’t reconcile ourselves to it being a henge. Certainly enigmatic..

Clavering's Cross

Trip No.76  Entry No.5  Date Added: 28th May 2018
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 26th May 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Clavering's Cross, Stanton: Disappointed by the third cairn, which we were really unsure of, I’d spotted this cross on the OS map, and as it wasn’t too far away, we thought we go on our way to Ewesley.

Parking on the verge just north of the farmhouse, there were roadworks being set up and a very large, yellow skip had been placed by the gate into the field. As there was a large ditch to its south, there was a very narrow piece of land to walk across, and with the side of the skip looming above my left hand side, I managed the two steps across, because I really wanted to see this cross.

We had to shoo the lovely, fat hens out of the way to open the gate, and spent a few minutes walking round and taking photographs. The steps were in a sorry state, which is unusual - Pastscape tells us the cross has (within living memory) been relocated back to the site where it originally stood, so perhaps the steps weren't built properly during the relocation.

Netherwitton A

Trip No.76  Entry No.4  Date Added: 28th May 2018
Site Type: Round Cairn Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 26th May 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Netherwitton Round Cairn A: This cairn is clearly visible from both Five Ashes cairn and Netherwitton B. There were some magnificent sheep and lambs in this field, all seemingly oblivious to the ancient monument underneath their hooves. All of them scattered as we approached the cairn. My first impression was ‘how many tens of thousands of stones did they use to create this cairn?’; the second ‘the interior has certainly been hacked about by whoever excavated this’.

We walked all round the higher outer bank of the cairn – it’s big. A very pleasant walk, to see three Bronze Age cairns very close to each other. This must have been a thriving community back in the day, especially with the River Font to the east and the Ewesley Burn to the west. I would have expected a standing stone or two to be in this area – it’s very fertile farmland here.