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A SUMMARY OF WHAT IS KNOWN OF THE SO-CALLED " DANES' GRAVES," 
NEAR DRIFFIELD. 
BY J. R. MORTIMER, DRIFFIELD. 
Read October 7th, 1897. 
The following is a summary, so far as I have been able to 
gather, of what has been written and what is known respecting this 
group of burial mounds. 
These mounds, covered by the trees of an old plantation, may 
be seen in a little valley within the boundaries of the Lordships 
of Driffield and Kilham, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, nearly 
four miles due north of Driffield. 
They measure from 1 ft. to 3^ ft. in height and 9 ft. to 33 ft. 
in diameter. The place has from time immemorial been called 
" Danes' Graves " and " Danesdale." Some accounts say there w^ere 
originally 500 at least of these mounds ; but on the Ordnance Map 
197 is the number given. Their comparative preservation seems to 
be due entirely to the protection affi)rded by the old trees growing 
on them. Very probably they once extended, on two sides at least, 
beyond the boundary of the plantation into the adjoining fields, but 
there the plough has obliterated all surface trace of them. Many of 
them within the plantation have been more or less levelled, and 
some w^holly obliterated by persons digging for rabbits ; while others 
ha^ e been frequently excavated at various periods by relic seekers 
and the otherwise curious, who have left no authentic account of 
their finds. 
I. The first written record respecting these barrows is given 
by Leland more than 300 years ago. He says: "Adjacent to 
Driffield there is a field called the ' Danish Field,' observable for 
the many mounds of the slain ; and there is a current report that, 
by the chance of war, a king fell on that field, Avhilst the tyranny of 
the Danes raged in those times." 
II. The next notice of them which I possess is by Sir William 
Dugdale, in 1666, who saw these mounds and in his Book of Arms 
in the Heralds' College makes the following note of them : — 
