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<< Our Photo Pages >> Six Hills - Round Barrow(s) in England in Hertfordshire

Submitted by ocifant on Monday, 05 April 2004  Page Views: 18817

Roman, Greek and ClassicalSite Name: Six Hills
Country: England County: Hertfordshire Type: Round Barrow(s)
Nearest Town: Stevenage
Map Ref: TL23742365  Landranger Map Number: 166
Latitude: 51.897667N  Longitude: 0.203025W
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
3 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
2 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.
5 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
4

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I have visited· I would like to visit

JohnLindsay visited on 1st Jan 2012 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 1 Access: 4 A short walk from Stevenage Station, near the library and the museum. The new town could have made, and could make, something much more impressive of this I would have thought. It might be worth considering how it works as townscape art. It is rather amazing they have survived at all. There is a leaflet available in Stevenage Museum, with a reference to Antiquity, 1936. That deals with Roman, and I doubt that there is anything Roman about a line of six, so Roman here might mean time rather than people.

Six Hills
Six Hills submitted by JoAtherton : Six Hills is the largest surviving group of Romano British burial mounds in England. The enduring existence of these sleeping tumuli in the midst of modern life is astounding. Find them today between timescapes; constricted on a grassy archipelago in Stevenage town centre. The intimidating growl of accelerating traffic, the glassy perfection of air conditioned offices, and nosey, onlooking ... (Vote or comment on this photo)
The largest surviving group of Romano British burial mounds in England.

The mounds are fairly evenly spaced, on a N-S line. Only one is undisturbed, three having large depressions indicating where shafts have been sunk, and the two most southerly have been tunnelled from the sides.

Bikers have left their marks in the form of tyre tracks and runnels across most of the barrows.

Access: Easily accessible outside a modern office building at the junction of the B197 London Road, and Six Hills Way. Amazing that they've survived!
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Six Hills
Six Hills submitted by Ojames : TL236236 Six Hills, Stevenage, Herts. Almost certainly Roman burials. Probably a wealthy family. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Six Hills
Six Hills submitted by bec-zog : Six Hills @ Stevenage; Barrows Iron age/Roman (6 comments - Vote or comment on this photo)

Six Hills
Six Hills submitted by Ojames : TL236236 Six Hills, Stevenage, Herts. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Six Hills
Six Hills submitted by JoAtherton : Look at this evocative postcard from around 1900 showing the Six Hills in Stevenage, the largest surviving group of Romano British burial mounds in England. These rounded tumps invoke a much earlier funerary tradition, more typical of the Bronze and Iron Age. Deliberately choosing an older monument style enabled the creators to express a longstanding connection to the land - we are here, have been... (Vote or comment on this photo)

Six Hills
Six Hills submitted by JoAtherton : These rounded tumps invoke a much earlier funerary tradition, more typical of the Bronze and Iron Age. Deliberately choosing an older monument style enabled the creators to express a longstanding connection to the land - we are here, have been for a very long time, and will continue to be in the futureā€¦perhaps in ways they could never have imagined. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Six Hills
Six Hills submitted by JoAtherton : Look at this evocative postcard from around 1900 showing the Six Hills in Stevenage, the largest surviving group of Romano British burial mounds in England. These rounded tumps invoke a much earlier funerary tradition, more typical of the Bronze and Iron Age. Deliberately choosing an older monument style enabled the creators to express a longstanding connection to the land - we are here, have been...

Six Hills
Six Hills submitted by JoAtherton : A few more pictures from a recent visit to Six Hills Romano British burial mounds in Stevenage. The intimidating growl of accelerating traffic, the glassy perfection of air conditioned offices, and nosey, onlooking flats, highlight how the once expansive Six Hills Common has become a squeezed, grassed island of prehistory. Today, this ground still serves as a living heirloom, for the grassla...

Six Hills
Six Hills submitted by JoAtherton

Six Hills
Six Hills submitted by JoAtherton : Six Hills is the largest surviving group of Romano British burial mounds in England. The enduring existence of these sleeping tumuli in the midst of modern life is astounding. Find them today between timescapes; constricted on a grassy archipelago in Stevenage town centre.

Six Hills
Six Hills submitted by JoAtherton

Six Hills
Six Hills submitted by JoAtherton

Six Hills
Six Hills submitted by bec-zog : Six Hills @ Stevenage; Barrows Iron age/Roman

Six Hills
Six Hills submitted by bec-zog

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"Six Hills" | Login/Create an Account | 4 News and Comments
  
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Re: Six Hills by Anonymous on Wednesday, 21 December 2016
Rare survivors of the Roman era of mound burials, the Six Hills of Stevenage were once conical and larger with ditches and earth banks, now lost via development over time. The occupants were likely to have been cremated with the mounds raised over the pyre, although sadly 18thc and later 19thc excavations which are still obvious to the eyes of any passing visitor did not record their findings fully.

Visitors will find these mounds easy to access being placed at odds with the post war landscape around them. Roman burial mounts are now thought to date to the early invasion days of the Roman era and tend to be a feature of the Anglia region. Current thinking places the occupants as late Iron Age warriors or chiefs keeping in touch with their ancient ancestral practices in the light of the invading Romans.
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Re: Six Hills by Anonymous on Tuesday, 22 July 2014
https://scontent-a-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xaf1/t1.0-9/q89/s720x720/10341858_10152212305641006_7155181181410763023_n.jpg

pic taken with the sweep panorama function on my phone
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Re: Six Hills by coldrum on Wednesday, 07 April 2010
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Re: Six Hills by Ojames on Monday, 12 April 2004
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Condition: 4
Ambience: 2
Access: 5

A Brief History (taken from the sign by the site).

For almost two thousand years travellers along the Roman road that eventually became the Great North Road, have passed these six large mounds. Their origin and purpose has been the subject of much speculation.

Local legend held that they were the work of the Devil, who, sitting one day looking down on the Great North Road, began to amuse himself by heaving clods of earth at the passers-by. He missed six times and in a temper through a seventh clod over his shoulder, hitting the spire of Graveley church and knocking it askew. The spire is crooked to this day. The holes in Whomerley Wood show where the Devil dug out his missiles, and the six failed shots lie in a line alongside the road and form the six hills.

In fact, the Six Hills are almost certainly Roman burial mounds, dating from about 100 A.D., and probably mark the cremated remains of a wealthy local family. The ashes would have been placed in a container along with object for use in the next world.

No recent scientific archaeological excavation has been carries out on the Hills but they have all been dug into in the past. These early investigations found only "...a few pieces of wood and a piece of iron...", which were dismissed at the times, but probably were the remains of the original burials. Other reports of damage include the farmer who was carting soil away from the Hills in 1750, and an attempted widening of the Great North Road in about 1820. Over the years, the Hills have all lost over four feet in height.

The grass around the burial mounds is of considerable age. It includes species such as bird's-foot trefoil, mouse-ear hawkweed, harebells, whitlow grass and slender clover, which are not found in the more modern grasslands nearby.

The Six Hills are of the greatest importance. They form the most complete Roman barrow group in the country, and stand in the very front rank of England's archaeological heritage. This is reflected in their designation as a Scheduled Ancient Monument, which means they are protected by law. It is an offence to damage them and metal detecting is also prohibited.
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