THE OPENING OF A TUMULUS 
NEAR PICKERING. 
By John L. Kirk, B.A., etc. 
During February, 1911, Mr. Oxley Grabham and myself set 
out to try our luck at opening a barrow in a field known as 
“ Monklands,” belonging to Mr. R. Hill. It is situated about a 
mile N.W. of Thornton-le-dale, on the west side of the Lockton 
road. 
The barrow had evidently been much reduced by the plough, 
but was some 3 to 4 feet high when we commenced operations. 
The diameter being somewhere about 60 feet. We were told by 
more than one ancient that in their younger days the barrow was 
covered with grass, and of considerable height; also, we were told, 
that it had been opened by the late Thomas Kendall, of Pickering, 
some 50 years or more ago. With what result we were unable to 
ascertain, as there is no catalogue extant of his work. Neither 
can we trace the barrow as being opened by Bates in his “ Ten 
Years’ Diggings’'; nor by Greenwell & Rolleston in their ‘‘British 
Barrows.” In the former work mention is made of four Tumuli 
being opened at Kingthorpe, vide pages 232 and 235, but there are 
no data to prove that the Monkland's barrow was one of them. 
To the south-east there are the scanty remains of a smaller 
barrow, which has a more sandy nature and no clay. 
About 50 paces to the north is an earthwork, which makes an 
almost rectangular bend to the south at a point N.E. of the bar- 
row and passes between the two barrows, and can be traced as a 
double ditch in certain states of the soil. It passes southward till 
it cuts the Lockton and Thornton-le-dale road. The portion to 
the north has not been ploughed down. Towards the west it 
turns in an obtuse angle towards the south-west. What this 
E 
