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Photo Pages: Seven Lows - Round Barrow(s) in England in Cheshire
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Submitted by vicky on Friday, 03 January 2003 Page Views: 3660
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 Site Name: Seven Lows Country: England County: Cheshire Type: Round Barrow(s)
Nearest Town: Northwich Nearest Village: Delamere
Map Ref: SJ567671 Landranger Map Number: 117
Latitude: 53.199203N Longitude: 2.649635W
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 |
1
Ambience:| 5 | Superb | | 4 | Good | | 3 | Ordinary | | 2 | Not Good | | 1 | Awful | | 0 | No data. |
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Access:| 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
Accuracy:| 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 |
no data
Internal Links:    
External Links:               Seven Lows submitted by Vicky
Round Barrow in Cheshire
These famous seven earthen mounds have suffered much in recent years. Damaged by ploughing, quarrying and landscaping only four now survive as slight bumps overlooking a valley to the south of Delamere, which was once an area of open water as is suggested by the name of the nearby Fishpool Farm. Two of the others were so unrecognisable that they were descheduled in 1994.
The earliest mention of the Seven Lows came from John Leland’s Itinerary written circa 1540: ‘there is a place in the forest of Delamere cawlid the VII Loos wher be seen VII Caste Dikes. The people there speak much of them. I think they were made by men of warre.’
The Lows were later described by Sir Philip de Malpas Grey Egerton. Some of this account appears in the works of local Cheshire historian, George Ormerod in the 19th century: ‘The Seven Lows are ranged in form nearly semicircular, and are of different sizes varying in diameter at the base from 105 feet to 40 feet. Beginning at the highest tumulus and following the semicircle, the tumuli measure in diameter 105, 45 ½, 40, 105, 66, 68 feet. One has been removed in the recent alterations of the forest, another was opened at a former period, both of which were composed of the dry gravely soil of the forest, and contained black matter, similar to that which appeared on opening Castle Hill Cob.’
Egerton continues ‘A tenant of mine, being in want of material to level an old road, opened for that purpose No 6 in Ormerod’s Plan. On digging into the mound on the north-east side an urn with bones was found. It was reversed on a flat stone, fragments of charcoal and earth were found over a great part of the floor of the mound. It appears that the modus operandi in its construction was this: A circular area of a definite diameter was first selected and floored with a layer of stones, on this the funeral pyre was erected. When the fire was extinguished, the ashes and bones were collected and deposited in the urn, and the latter reversed in such a position near the circumference as not to be crushed by the superincumbent structure. This being arranged the tumulus was formed by a covering of soil. The quantity of stones in this tumulus cannot have been less than 50 tons. The circumference was rather more than sixty yards, and the height in the centre six feet.’
He then goes on to describe the urn which was ‘of earthenware, apparently slightly baked or sun-dried. The marks of the latter are visible in the interior. Circumference at the rim 2 feet 7 inches; largest circumference, 2 feet 11 inches, diameter of the foot, 5 inches; height 1 foot 1 inch. At four inches below the rim a raised fillet surrounds the urn, and the portion between the rim and the fillet is rudely ornamented with parallel lines, drawn diagonally in various directions, but never decussating, they appear as if formed by a piece of twisted cord on the soft clay.’
The further demise of the cemetery is recorded by antiquarian William Shone in the early twentieth century: ‘The writer visited, in November 1907, the VII Lows, only to find them almost levelled. A slight circular rise in the ground, in places, can be traced with help of the large scale Ordnance Survey map.’ Luckily the site does not seem to have deteriorated too much in the intervening years, but it seems criminal that such an important prehistoric feature has been reduced to nothing more than a few grassy bumps.
Access
The Lows stood at (i)SJ567671 (ii)SJ567670 (destroyed) (iii)SJ567671 (destroyed) (iv)SJ567670 (v)SJ56670 (vi)SJ567671 and (vii)SJ566671 (destroyed). The four remaining mounds can be viewed today from B5152 (the road linking the A54 Northwich to Chester road with the A49T Warrington to Whitchurch road) near Ottersbank farm. However it is not worth making a special visit!
References
G. Ormerod “The History of Cheshire”, 2nd Edition (1882)
D.M.Longley “Prehistory” in C.R.Elrington (ed) “The Victoria History of the County of Chester, volume 1, Oxford University Press (1987)
Cheshire County Sites & Monuments Record
J. Leland “The Itinerary” (1745 edition)
W. Shone “Prehistoric Man in Cheshire” (1911)
Note: Please note this barrow cemetery is located on private land but can be easily viewed from the nearby road.
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 Seven Lows submitted by Vicky
The Collared Urn found in one of the Seven Lows of Delamere after an ‘accidental opening’, now in the British Museum (from Shone’s ‘Prehistoric Man in Cheshire, 1911’)
 Seven Lows submitted by Vicky
Seven Lows in 1813
A plan of the Seven Lows as they looked in 1813, taken from Ormerod’s ‘History of Cheshire’.
Do not use the above information on other web sites or publications without permission of the contributor.
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411m W 261° Forest Farm Round Barrow(s) (SJ563670)
1.1km NE 65° Oakmere* Ancient Village or Settlement (SJ576678)
1.5km SW 245° High Billinge* Round Barrow(s) (SJ555662)
1.9km W 266° Whistlebitch Well* Holy Well or Sacred Spring (SJ548669)
2.7km NW 314° Castle Ditch Eddisbury* Hillfort (SJ553694)
3.2km E 83° Long Stone Cross* Ancient Cross (SJ599677)
3.5km W 275° Kelsborrow Castle* Hillfort (SJ532676)
3.5km W 288° Delamere Stone Circle (SJ536688)
4.2km SW 212° Salterswell* Holy Well or Sacred Spring (SJ552632)
4.2km N 6° Gallowsclough Cob* Round Barrow(s) (SJ570713)
6.2km NW 318° Glead Hill Cob Round Barrow(s) (SJ538726)
7.1km NW 319° Castle Cob* Round Barrow(s) (SJ535734)
7.2km S 169° Robin Hood's Tump* Round Barrow(s) (SJ575599)
7.7km W 254° Brookhouse Farm Ancient Village or Settlement (SJ497639)
8.4km SW 211° Beeston Castle* Hillfort (SJ538592)
8.9km E 81° Moultonbank Farm Round Barrow(s) (SJ653694)
9.7km S 202° Peckforton Mere Ancient Village or Settlement (SJ543577)
10.1km NW 333° Bradley Earthworks* Hillfort (SJ539768)
10.3km NW 312° Woodhouses* Hillfort (SJ511757)
11.1km NW 303° Helsby Hill* Hillfort (SJ493754)
11.4km W 279° St Plegmund's Well* Holy Well or Sacred Spring (SJ457701)
11.5km NW 320° Synagogue Well Holy Well or Sacred Spring (SJ51687742)
13.2km NE 34° Whitley Village Round Barrow(s) (SJ617793)
14.3km NE 56° Robin Hoods Butts Round Barrow(s) (SJ662778)
14.6km W 289° St Mary (Thornton Le Moors)* Ancient Cross (SJ44157455)
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