Butley Barrow

It survived the building of the turnpike (about 1760) and was excavated in 1808 before the railway was built. On old OS maps it is marked “Site of Cairns (Urn and Human Remains found here).

JP Earwaker’s 1880 description (page 24):-

‘In the year 1808 an interesting discovery of apparently Saxon remains took place at Butley, the details of which appeared in the Manchester Volunteer newspaper for that year; but owing to the unscientific way in which the account was written, it is not easy to arrive at a definite conclusion as to what the discoveries really were.
‘The place where the remains were found is described as a field adjoining the turnpike-road betwixt Stockport and Macclesfield. About a yard below the surface was found “what appeared to be a regular stratum of paving stones, but which on further examination proved to be an assemblage of tumuli, lows, barrows, or cairns”! Some of the stones showed evidence of fire, whilst others were coated with a “sort of film,” resembling “a thin coat of iron-coloured paint,” which “we have reason to believe was caused by a plentiful effusion of blood”! An urn, full of ashes, was found covered with a large stone, and surrounded by three large boulders. Near the urn were found some bones. The urn fell to pieces on being moved; it is stated to have had a capacity of about two English quarts. Some small bits of copper, covered with verdigris were found near it.’

Earwaker Butley Township