<< Our Photo Pages >> Sherwell Long Barrow - Long Barrow in England in Devon
Submitted by AngieLake on Monday, 03 January 2005 Page Views: 9039
Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Sherwell Long Barrow Alternative Name: Sherrill Long BarrowCountry: England County: Devon Type: Long Barrow
Nearest Town: Ashburton Nearest Village: Dartmeet
Map Ref: SX677752
Latitude: 50.561535N Longitude: 3.86925W
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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The leader of our group, Tony Heath, had measured the length and width in megalithic yards (ie: one equals 2ft 8.64ins, or 82.966 centimetres), making it 65 long, by 30 wide. I missed the initial group's visit to dowse due to working full-time, but returned alone with Tony one Saturday, and whilst he visited the lady, I did my own dowsing - records of which would be available if anyone wished to see them.
When Tony re-joined me, we dowsed the underground chambers, working in a kind of mirror-image movement from the top surface of the barrow away from the collapsed SE entrance. (We were unable to investige this entrance as it was covered in bushes). We confirmed a long chamber reaching back approximately 1/3 of the way along the barrow from the entrance, and on each side were five side chambers, with the middle one on the NE side being partially collapsed (at least, it dowsed in a 'W' pattern, rather than square). The long passage, off which these chambers led, ended in a narrow rectangular space, the width of the passage. We crossed-checked each others' findings, walking right around the whole ten/(eleven, if you count the narrow end chamber) from the entrance, and back to the entrance again.
We also dowsed that a 'dolmen-like' structure once stood atop the barrow (or in a position at a distance of at least 3/4 of the way from the entrance, and slightly to the NE of the barrow's ridge). It's possible that we picked up a ground-level structure, later incorporated into the mound of the barrow. (Some of the Severn-Cotswold chambered tombs have burial cists included in the rear ends of their mounds.)
Due North from this 'dolmen' was firstly a straight, followed by a looping processional route, which ended in many swirls on the spot just 6 paces from the present-day NW wall, before executing a large 'figure-of-eight' movement to the N, (also found in front of Long Meg herself, for instance) which overlapped the present path, before linking back in to the swirl, turning 21 times, then returning to the 'dolmen'.
(I had a theory about this movement:
"The processional route to the North was really interesting. What did all those squashed serpentine movements mean? Maybe a standing stone, or wooden 'totem pole'/'post' of some description once stood where the swirls occurred at the end of that movement, and perhaps the exaggerated zig-zag route was encouraged to amplify the importance of the approach to it? After the figure-of-eight movement, just like an Analemma (the track made by the sun as seen from a fixed point on the surface of the Earth over the course of the year) that crossed the present-day track, I returned to the swirl, which this time, executing 21 anti-clockwise turns, seemed never-ending. Maybe it guaranteed the 'priest' or 'priestess' would enter a dizzying trance as he/she moved back along the 'stone row' (another N - S axis row possibly stood here) to the dolmen, heightening his connection with the other worlds? Whatever........."
That passage is taken from the book I have written, which is awaiting a publisher.)
A processional route, up and down a longer 'stone row', once existed between the 'dolmen' and a 'blocking stone' (none of these stone monuments are visible now) to the NE of the SE barrow entrance. This entire ritual movement commenced from the 'blocking stone' at SE to the 'dolmen', in a NW direction, and was followed by the aforementioned northerly processional route, after which it circled the 'dolmen' in an anticlockwise direction, before returning to the 'blocking stone' again. Then I turned back to the NW for a few paces, before heading off to the NE a few more paces, and finally ended in a multiple swirl. I believe this was where I ended the whole exercise, due to the tiredness that comes on after such a lot of concentration.
(It is always important to record all these moves, then they can be compared with other sites' patterns. I always 'ask' to be shown the original ritual movements when the site is at the height of its importance, whilst holding copper L-shaped rods, which move of their own accord when I concentrate on that subject. Before you pooh-pooh this, find your local dowsing society, and have a go. I guarantee you will be amazed! Having said that, I don't know anyone else who does processional route dowsing, but it works on the same priniciple of 'the need to know', as in water dowsing, or earth energy dowsing.)
As the barrow's entrance faced SE, it may, like Newgrange and many others, have been aligned to the sunrise at the Winter Solstice. It seems to have been one of the most important ritual times of the year for the ancient people. However, the horizon in that direction is obscured by high tors (the rugged hills of Dartmoor, with their unusual granite formations, often also topped off with cairns). This would make the sun appear a little later, over the brow of the hills. When checking the ordnance survey map - despite the lower ground between Yar Tor and Corndon Tor that could have given a sun 'peep' - the SE axis would be more likely to align with Corndon Tor.
This dowse was completed on 9th September 2000, and is copyright of the Society of Moorland Dowsers, and also of myself, Angela Lake. I'd be happy to share any info with anyone, as this particular part of our dowsing exercise was really just my own findings.
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