195 



Notes of the Opening of Ancient British Tumuli in North 

 Northumherland in 1863 and 1865. By the Rev. Wil- 

 liam Greenwell, M.A. 



I PURPOSE, in this paper, to give an account of the opening 

 of some tumuli, which I made during the years 1863 and 

 1865, in North Northumberland. Though many tumuli 

 have been opened, and cists containing interments have been 

 discovered, within the district over which the researches of 

 our Club extend, we have had few systematic records of such 

 discoveries printed, and in consequence, a great number of 

 valuable facts, connected with the sepulchral usages of the 

 early occupants of this country, have been, it is to be feared, 

 for ever lost to us. This is a matter very much to be regret- 

 ted, for we cannot again expect, now that so much of our 

 waste land has been brought into cultivation, to have the 

 opportunity, which a first ploughing gave us, of examining a 

 large series of these places of burial. The necessity, therefore, 

 for preserving accurate and detailed records of what does 

 occur to us is a very pressing one, and one which, I trust, 

 will not be neglected by any one of our members. 



Before I give an account of those tumuli which I have 

 examined myself,* I will briefly record a few notes of some 

 interments which have been discovered in the parish of Ford; 

 they will thus be preserved from being forgotten, and some 

 facts, which may prove of service, will find a proper place in 

 our Transactions. 



There is no part of Northumberland which has produced 

 more frequent instances of early interments than the parish 

 of Ford, of which the greater number have been of burials 

 after cremation. Possessing a large amount of good land, 

 together with natural positions of considerable strength, and 

 having a river well stored with fish running through it, the 

 parish of Ford appears to have been early and extensively 

 occupied. I have notes of a large quantity of interments, 

 which in the course of ploughing, draining, and walling, 

 have from time to time been discovered ; unfortunately, in 

 nearly all these cases no careful observations were made, 

 and my information is therefore very vague. I possess also, 



* See an Account of the opening of two Barrows, published in our Transac- 

 tions, Vol. IV., 390. I may have meniion, that I have since obtained from the 

 second of the barrows there described, a very fine specimen of a flint javelin head, 

 chipped over the whole surface; it is 2f inches long. This was found associated 

 with one of the interments of burnt bodies deposited in the barrow, and it was 

 placed in the stratum of burnt matter mentioned in tlie paper. 



