West Boldon, Downhill, barrow and cist

HER Number:
873

District:
S Tyneside

Site Name:
West Boldon, Downhill, barrow and cist

Place:
West Boldon

Map Sheet:
NZ36SE

Class:
Religious Ritual and Funerary

Site Type: Broad:
Funerary site

Site Type: Specific:
Round Barrow

General Period:
Prehistoric

Specific Period:
Bronze Age

Form of Evidence:
Levelled Earthwork

Description:
In 1898-9 the Sunderland and South Shields Water Company constructed a service reservoir at Downhill (Nanny Cow Hill) on high ground south of West Boldon. While there seems no doubt that prehistoric finds were made in the course of this work, the evidence for the onetime existence of a barrow on the site depends entirely on Preston's statement, nearly 40 years later, that "the waterworks necessitated the removal of the barrow".

Easting:
352

Northing:
601

Grid Reference:
NZ352601

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
<< HER 873 >> Sunderland and South Shields Water Company Centenary, 1852-1952, L 628.1 -Newcastle Library Local Studies; H. Preston, 1935, Microlithic and other Industries of the Wear Valley, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle, 4, VI (for 1933-34, p. 109; R. Young, 1980, An Inventory of Barrows in Co. Durham, Transactions Architectectural & Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland, New series Vol. 5, p. 5 no. 7; HE Savage, 1899, Exhibited, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle, 2, VIII (for 1897-8), p 206; AM Gibson, 1978, Bronze Age Pottery in the North East of England, No. 56, p 92; GB Gibbs, 1912, Early History of the Water Supplies of Sunderland and South Shields, Antiquities of Sunderland, XII (for 1911), p 34; R Miket, 1984, The Prehistory of Tyne and Wear, p 85, No. 1