markwillingale writes:
I would be grateful if someone could provide more information on this marshland barrow, which may have been excavated in 1880 and is hence listed as bronze age? This shallow mound on Higham Marshes is close to the ancient causeway leading from the Norman Church to the riverbank, where today there are the eroded remains of a ferry hardstanding and harbour, this presumably being the south landing of the ancient East Tilbury- Higham Ferry.
The proximity of this "barrow" and the ferry seems more than co-incidental, especially as the mound is on the line of the route across the Thames from East Tibury to the southbank harbour. One reference suggests it was here that the Romans chased the Britons over the Thames. The nearby St. Mary's Priory was required to maintain the ferry but with the dissolution of the monasteries presumably it fell into disuse and ferry traffic moved upstream to Tilbury-Gravesend.
So the mound could be an ancient monument to the Bronze-Age people who first built the causeway and ferry, or a Romano-British tumulus related to the ferry crossing, or simply the raised location for a bonfire to help navigation across the Thames when dark or misty?
A new excavation seems overdue? Could confirm the degree to which this feature is natural or constructed, from where the materials were brought for construction (presumably Beckley Hill nearby) and the date of construction from examination of the original marsh levels, pollen etc? Would only need to disturb a small area of the perimeter? Similarly the ferry landing needs investigation as the Thames, flowing much faster within the modern embankments, is rapidly cutting away the remaining traces.
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