Monument record HLM 005 - Pond Meadow (Un)

Barrow.
Many fragments of 'ancient funereal and other pottery', or `ancient British remains (as proved by excavation)' besides portions of querns, animal bones etc. have been found in nearly every part of Pond Meadow. This field also contains a long moat forming the E boundary (see Med), and a few yards from the NW corner of `this ancient enclosure ("the moat" and raised ground to the W)' in the same field - is a brow overlooking a gentle slope of now arable land to the N. It seemed a likely spot for an ancient tumulus... ....which had been levelled by cultivation. Excavation followed and `as I anticipated, it proved the site of a British barrow of very early date. At a depth of two feet....' (see Rom). `Lower down, at a depth of four feet, was a cist or grave seven feet long, two feet wide, and eighteen inches deep, lying nearly E and W. It was almost entirely filled with charcoal, ashes, and broken urns; but contained, in addition, three lower jaw-bones of different animals carefully deposited, - one evidently the jaw of a pig; another, smaller, with teeth much worn by gnawing; and a rude flint spear-head. The pottery in the cist was black, and moulded by hand; very primitive, with here an there finger mark indentations for ornament.' Suggests primary interment `in the cist; the high antiquity of which is shown by the presence of the very rude flint spear-head. No human bones were in this cist, - animal bones only and urns, with, perhaps, human ashes... here and there burnt the earth of the natural soil (clay), and converted it into an imperfect brick.' (S1). For (Rom?) finds from a higher level - see Rom.
Note manuscript of Rev Cardew's excavations in Ipswich Museum and Tollemache library.