47 



Barrows at Ibaooon tfielos, Derb^sbire. 



BY JOHN WARD. 



F my reader has ascended the Lathkil Valley — one of the 

 fairest in Derbyshire — he will recollect Conksbury Bridge, 

 a short mile below the conspicuous village of Upper 

 Haddon. The elevated tract of pasture land, bleak and 

 uninteresting, as is usually the case with these Peak toplands, stretch- 

 ing out from the right-hand side of this part of the valley towards 

 Bakewell and Haddon Hall, is known as Haddon Fields, and some 

 70 years ago was open moorland. The barrows were in a field 

 immediately above the bridge, and marked Haddon Bank on the 

 Ordnance Survey. 



It was here, last August, that some labourers engaged in collecting 

 stone to repair a wall, and to construct a " mere " (a local term for 

 the saucer-shaped ponds of the district — usually lined with stone), 

 broke into a cist containing a human skeleton, the skull of which was 

 unfortunately smashed in the proceeding. Notwithstanding its care- 

 ful interment, and the obviously artificial character of the cist, — con- 

 structed partly of gritstone slabs ( a stone not found nearer than two 

 miles away), it was regarded as merely the skeleton of a sheep ! The 

 larger slabs were broken into suitable blocks for building purposes, 

 and thrown amongst the stones which had formed the slight rising of 

 the ground above the cist, — -for the reader must know that these 

 mounds were scarcely visible, their upper parts having been cleared 

 away long ago — perhaps at the time of the enclosure. The smaller 

 materials and sods were then replaced, and thus the skeleton was 

 covered up again. Fortunately one of the men doubting this 



