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The Henge Monuments of the British Isles: Myth and Archaeology

The Henge Monuments of the British Isles: Myth and Archaeology

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<< Text Pages >> Skutchamer Knob - Round Barrow(s) in England in Oxfordshire

Submitted by crickhollow on Monday, 06 July 2020  Page Views: 1647

Multi-periodSite Name: Skutchamer Knob Alternative Name: Cwichelmslaewe, Scutchmer Knob, Scotchman’s Knob, Cwicchelmes hlæwe, Mound of Cwichelm
Country: England County: Oxfordshire Type: Round Barrow(s)
Nearest Town: Wantage  Nearest Village: East Hendred
Map Ref: SU4565585038
Latitude: 51.562380N  Longitude: 1.342779W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
2 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
4 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
3 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
5

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I have visited· I would like to visit

Couplands visited on 13th Sep 2023 - their rating: Cond: 2 Amb: 3 Access: 3

Bird_nerd29 visited on 12th Feb 2023 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 4 Access: 4 Easy to access on foot, right on the Ridgeway (parking nearby). Not much to add to what others have said, but it’s in a nice wooded area with fields all around. Trig point just along the footpath, could combine this with a longer walk down to Ginge and the Hendreds.



Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 3 Ambience: 3.5 Access: 3.5

Within a small woodland adjacent to the ancient Ridgeway path, where it crosses the parish of East Hendred, stands Scutchamer Knob. It is a raised earth mound and legend has it, that it is the burial mound of the Saxon king Cwichelm.

Scutchamer Knob was excavated and ruthlessly dug away in 1842, which has given it the shape of a crescent moon or a croissant depending upon your imagination.

The excavations here discovered the moot-stake, an oaken stump bound with willow twigs – unless this was a post for the beacon, which was later set up on the mound. No sign was found of any burial, although it was clearly believed that the old king Cwichelm lay buried beneath this place of judgement.

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Skutchamer Knob
Skutchamer Knob submitted by Bird_nerd29 : View to the south, into the centre of the “bowl” - shape created by excavations. Footpath leads all the way around the top. Fence with gate around the barrow, easy to access. (Vote or comment on this photo)

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Nearby Images from Geograph Britain and Ireland:
SU4585 : Scutchamer Knob by Des Blenkinsopp
by Des Blenkinsopp
©2011(licence)
SU4585 : Gate to the Knob by Bill Nicholls
by Bill Nicholls
©2011(licence)
SU4585 : Scutchamer Knob (stitch) by Bill Nicholls
by Bill Nicholls
©2011(licence)
SU4585 : Scutchamer Knob by Fly
by Fly
©2011(licence)
SU4585 : Scutchamer Knob by The Ridgeway by Steve Daniels
by Steve Daniels
©2009(licence)

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"Skutchamer Knob" | Login/Create an Account | 5 News and Comments
  
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Places of assembly: new discoveries in Sweden and England by Andy B on Friday, 17 July 2020
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Places of assembly: new discoveries in Sweden and England, Sanmark,A.and Semple,S.J.(2008)

This paper reviews recent field results from Sweden and England demonstrating that currently held perceptions of assembly-sites as archaic and cultic are only partially accurate. Evidence has emerged for the purposeful creation of assembly locations in the fourth to eleventh centuries AD as one of the many processes of kingdom formation. In common with other modes of expression such as burial,the creation of assembly sites was often undertaken by adopting or reusing ancient locations marked by palimpsests of prehistoric remains. However, as evidence from Sweden demonstrates, meeting-places could also be created de novo, and newly monumentalised by the addition of standing stones, inscribed stones and mounds

http://dro.dur.ac.uk/5905/1/5905.pdf

http://fornvannen.se/2000talet/fornvannen2008.html
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Re: Skutchamer Knob by Andy B on Friday, 17 July 2020
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In AD 1006 a challenge was made to the English by the Danish raiding army at Cwicchelmes hlæwe [Cwichelmeshlæwe] or the ‘Mound of Cwichelm’. This site is known today as Scutchamer Knob, situated in East Hendred on the Oxfordshire and Berkshire border. The raiding army camped and by so doing confronted local legend, awaiting in vain the ‘boasted threats, because it had often been said that if they sought out Cwichelm’s Barrow, they would never get to the sea’. They eventually turned homeward, achieving a safe return to the Hampshire coast. Today Cwichelmeshlæwe is recognized through fieldwork as a prominent prehistoric tumulus, once over 60 metres in diameter and 7 metres in height. (Ref: Semple: Excavations at Scutchmer’s Knob, East Hendred, Berkshire, South Midlands Archaeological Journal.)

Despite its creation in prehistory, this monument must have held a political significance for the late Anglo-Saxon communities and powers of this region. It was named after a member of the West Saxon royal family and is twice documented as the meeting place of the late Saxon shire assembly (Gelling 1974: 481–2; see also Robertson 1939). In 1006, the monument was described in relation to emotive and popular folklore, linking the safe defence of England to the security of the mound. Perhaps for this reason the raiding army chose it as a place for a theatrical and political statement designed to weaken English resolve.

Prehistoric monuments were important to early medieval populations. They recognized them as ancient features, as human creations from a distant past. They used them as landmarks, battle sites, and estate markers. They gave them new Old English names. Before and even during the conversion to Christianity, communities buried their dead in and around these relict features and placed elite graves within them. After the conversion, several churches were built in and on these monuments, great assemblies and meetings were held at them, and felons executed and buried within their surrounds.

From the Introduction to Perceptions of the Prehistoric in Anglo-Saxon England: Religion, Ritual, and Rulership in the Landscape by Sarah Semple, Oxford University Press, 2019
https://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0198844115/megalithicmyst0a
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Exploring the Biggest Ever Anglo-Saxon Knob by Andy B on Monday, 06 July 2020
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Prof. Howard M R Williams writes: Through my work on perceptions of the past in the early medieval period and the Pillar of Eliseg, I continue to explore my interest in the early medieval use of mounds as assembly places.

Me, my son and one of my daughters recently visited Scutchmer Knob (otherwise known as Scutchamer Knob or ‘Scotchman’s Knob’). This is a mound situated on Cuckhamsley or Scutchamfly Hill in the parish of East Hendred (Oxfordshire) and historically in Berkshire.

The Knob is nowhere near has prominent as it might once have been: situated within a stand of trees and only crescent shape following early 20th-century archaeological excavations that suggested it dated to the Iron age, and earlier excavations to quarry soil to fertilise surrounding fields. It would have originally been a conical, flat-topped mound c. 43m in diameter – a huge knob if ever there was one! [Har Har Howard - MegP Ed]

In my 1999 paper investigating the locational qualities of high-status barrow-burials of the seventh century AD, I made the argument that Scuthmer Knob is the only burial mound in its vicinity to afford all-round views over long distances, making it an ideal location for communicating by beacon or signal and affording the visitor will the sense of all-encompassing oversight. The only mound in the area giving a similar impression was at Lowbury Hill: a far more modest mound that contained a seventh-century weapon burial. Hence, the Knob’s selection for use as an assembly place was not arbitrary, it was a site on a prominent long-distance routeway, on a principal shire boundary and also one that was especially prominent in the surrounding landscape, and affording spectacular long-distance views. In this regard, Scutchmer Knob is not only a site that allows views northwards over the Upper Thames Valley, it is possible on a clear day to see south to the North Downs.

More at
https://howardwilliamsblog.wordpress.com/2014/06/01/exploring-the-biggest-ever/
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Re: Skutchamer Knob by Andy B on Monday, 06 July 2020
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Photo here
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/Scutchamer.png
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