Monument MPM111 - Gob's barrow, Portsdown Hill

Oval barrow excavated in 1926 by Colonel J.H. Cooke. The western part contained a grave with the crouched skeleton of a young man and a flint dagger. Also found were the fragments of a richly ornamented beaker and a small jet bead. The remains of what were interpreted as two flint cists (burial chambers/graves) were found in the east and west halves of the mound, together with cremated remains. The barrow site is now occupied by a house.

The name 'Gob's Barrow' appears to have been given to the mound by Colonel J.H. Cooke who excavated the site in 1926. According to Cooke in 1926 the barrow measured 64 yards by 28 yards (approximately 59m x 25.5m) and had been so reduced by years of ploughing that it was 'not more than 2ft 6in high at any point'. A depression in the centre of the barrow suggested that it had already been broken into/opened at some point during its history.

The excavation concentrated on the ditch which surrounded the barrow and the east and west halves of the mound. A report on the excavation written by Cooke under the pseudonym 'Innominate' was published in the Hampshire Telegraph in two parts on the 2nd and 9th of April 1926. This recorded that the site consisted of one oval barrow surrounded by a ditch. The infill of the ditch on the northern section contained clay, flints and chalk interspersed with which were hundreds of fragments of bricks and roof/flue tiles. The remains of what were interpreted as two flint cists (burial chambers/graves) were found in the east and west halves of the mound, together with cremated remains. The major find was a grave containing a crouched inhumation burial located towards the centre of the western half of the mound. This contained a flint dagger, decorated pottery beaker and jet bead. Cooke dated the inhumation burial to 2,500 - 2,000 BC. It was thought that the cists and cremation burials predated the inhumation burial and were possibly Neolithic. This was the interpretation given in 1926 and a modern investigation may reach different conclusions.

The details of the findings were as follows:

Ditch
Four sections of ditch were excavated within the north, south, east and west periphery of the barrow. The bottom of the ditch was concave with the sides sloping continuously upwards. The sections on the east and west were no more than 1ft deep and filled with surface soil. The northern and southern sections were cut about 5ft into the chalk and contained several layers of infill. The base of each section had a layer of chalky loam overlain by a layer of small chalk chippings and then another layer of silt. This continued until the top soil on the southern section, but about 18 inches from the base of the northern section was an assemblage of clay, flints and chalk. Interspersed with the latter were hundreds of fragments of bricks and roof/flue tiles. The latter were interpreted as having been thrown into the ditch in order to level the site when it began to be used for agricultural purposes.

Cists
The remains of what were interpreted as two flint cists (burial chambers/graves) were found in the east and west halves of the mound. The cist in the eastern half was encountered 9ft from the ditch and 2ft 6ins from the surface and had been damaged by ploughing. It consisted of a heap of large unbroken flints grouped together and the remains of a cremation which had been dispersed in the surrounding soil. A white patinated flint scraper was also recovered.

The remains of a similar chamber were said to have been found in the western half. This had been ploughed through 'but the flints were grouped and more or less in juxtaposition'. Two patinated white flint scrapers were recovered.

Inhumation
A grave approximately 3ft square containing a crouched burial was found in the western half of the mound about 6 yards (5.5m) south-west of the centre of the mound and about 18ins below the surface. The skeleton was lying on its left side and orientated north-east south-west. Most of the skeleton was recovered but 'much of it had been dispersed by the plough'. A flint dagger was on its right side and the fragments of a beaker/food vessel with panel and band decoration close by. A small jet bead 'lay in the debris'.

[1]

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Oval barrow opened in 1926 by Colonel J.H. Cooke. The western part contained a grave, three foot square, with the crouched skeleton of a young man and a flint dagger. Also found were the fragments of a richly ornamented beaker (A/) and a small jet bead. The eastern part contained cremations and a flint scraper. The barrow was situated three hundred yards east of the George Inn on a site later occupied by Winton House. The barrow was destroyed.

References listed on SMR card:
Arch Hants. Williams-Freeman. Tales of Ancient Wessex - Cooke
Hampshire Telegraph 8-9 April 1926

[2]

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'An oval barrow (probably a twin-barrow) on Portsdown near the George Inn (Gob's Barrow) was opened about 1926 by Col. Cooke, and proved to be of considerable importance. The western portion contained a cist 3ft. Square, in which was a crouched skeleton of a young man, accompanied by a well-worked flint dagger, fragments of a richly ornamented beaker (probably type A) and a small jet bed. See Hampshire Telegraph, April 8th and 9th, 1926.' [3]

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Col. Cooke stated that a skeleton had been found there 40 years before his excavation. In 1933 the site was unrecognisable and had been used for the site of a house called 'Barrow Dene'. [4]

<1> Innominate, 1926, Hampshire Telegraph (Bibliographic reference). SPM521.

<2> Portsmouth City Council, n/a, Portsmouth City SMR Cards, SU60NE5 (Index). SPM1.

<3> Grinsell, L.V., 1940, Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society Vol XIV (Bibliographic reference). SPM62.

<4> J.W.F, 1933, Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society Vol XII (Bibliographic reference). SPM63.