Overview
Salthouse Heath rises above Salthouse village and is home to the largest Bronze Age barrow field in Norfolk with around 60 known burial barrows and several earlier features. Together these represent the physical legacy of a prehistoric community that remained active around Salthouse for at least two millennia.
The site is recognised as being of significant archaeological value and is heavily protected by scheduled ancient monument status. The site was subject to four very limited excavations in the 19th and 20th centuries but most of what we know comes from aerial photographs, field walking and finds recorded from the heath.
The ridge folk who lived here
The first evidence of permanent settlement on Salthouse Heath is of a prehistoric farming community potentially established as early as the Neolithic period. This was identified from aerial photographs taken in 1994 and 1996 which revealed crop marks from an enclosed settlement incorporating several roundhouses. This was sited west of Bixes Lane and just inside the parish of Cley on a ridge leading towards The Lowes, a valley containing a stream running into the River Glaven. It is interesting that some archaeologists believe “Lowes” is an archaic name for barrows.
The early Britons As the last ice age receded what is now the North Sea became “Doggerland” and was populated by Mesolithic hunter gatherers. The rising post-glacial sea levels then covered Doggerland about 6500 BC and the British Peninsular became the British Isles. The island’s hunter gatherer population developed a transient way of life involving complex rhythms of seasonal movement and a profound understanding of the environment they inhabited. This way of life began to disappear around 4000 BC as the Neolithic “first farmers” and their ideas arrived from the continent. The change from hunter gathering to farming was gradual and might have involved a degree of tension between the existing population and the newcomers with their more permanent settlements, domesticated livestock and cultivation of wheat.
The crop marks suggest this settlement was in use for a very long period of prehistory and its location was probably influenced by proximity to well drained and lighter upland soils and access to water from The Lowes. Sites on lighter upland soils were often chosen by early farmers. It is also interesting that where they lived and what they built was oriented inland rather than towards the sea.
This village formed part of an extensive network of dispersed prehistoric communities and there is evidence of Neolithic and Bronze Age activity all along Cromer Ridge. It is likely that they interacted with groups such as the flint miners of Grimes Graves. They may also have had contact with the coastal communities of northern Britain and Europe. We know this because, apart from DNA evidence of Neolithic migration, Bronze Age boats with the capacity to travel long distances in coastal waters have been excavated at both Dover and at Ferriby on the Humber estuary.
These early farmers probably lived on crops such as emmer wheat, root vegetables and pulses together with meat and dairy from domesticated livestock and wild venison or other hunted meat. This diet would have been supplemented with foraged food including hazelnuts, roots, fungi and berries. It also seems likely that the ridge folk obtained food from the sea although archaeological evidence of a prehistoric marine diet in England is sparse.
What they built – the Causewayed Enclosure
In 1996 aerial photographs revealed an interrupted circular ditch with an inner wall having a diameter of 60m situated a short distance east of Bixes Lane and close to the settlement. The ditch consisted of eight sections and, although not certain without excavation, the preferred view of most archaeologists is that it represents a small Causewayed Enclosure.
Norfolk has at least two other similar structures including one at Roughton Heath and one at Buxton with Lammas.
What are Causewayed Enclosures?
Causewayed Enclosures were built across Neolithic Britain between about 3500 and 3300 BC and comprise a circular ditch and bank with multiple entrances (“causeways”) enclosing a flat central area. We do not know what they were used for but the open design suggests they were meeting places for ritual, farming, trade or social activity because the numerous entrances made them too permeable to be effective defensive structures. The largest of these are mainly found around South and Central England.
The Norfolk versions appear somewhat smaller than the enclosures found elsewhere in England.
Some archaeologists have alternatively proposed that this crop mark could represent a late Bronze Age enclosed village (“Springfield Type enclosure”) built on the site of a Neolithic causewayed enclosure. This combination is known to occur in East Anglia with the best example being at Springfield Lyons in Essex. This can only be proved by excavation however the aerial photographs of Springfield Lyons appear very similar to the Salthouse Heath feature in size and appearance.
What they built – Neolithic Long Barrow
Nearby and just inside Cley parish a small ovoid Neolithic Long Barrow was also identified from 1994 aerial photos. This crop mark revealed an oblong shaped ditch around 21.5m by 11.5m with an entrance at the eastern side.
What are Long Barrows?
Long Barrows are elongated rectangular mounds covering a series of stone or timber chambers constructed around 3500-3000BC. The chambers were used to hold multiple (and often disarticulated) human remains rather than individual burials – with specific bones being periodically moved or replaced for ritual purposes we do not yet understand. Frequently sited in prominent upland positions, they are mainly found in Wessex and the south west of England, although more are being identified in East Anglia.
This design is consistent with confirmed Norfolk Long Barrows such as West Rudham and, like the Causewayed Enclosure, is rather smaller than those found elsewhere in England. The Long Barrow sat at the top of a gully leading down to The Lowes which suggests it was meant to be seen from the valley floor.
The temporal and physical proximity of the enclosed settlement, the Causewayed Enclosure and the Long Barrow suggests a connection. Combined with nearby evidence of prehistoric ditches and the reported f inding of several polished stone axeheads it appears that this part of the heath was home to an industrious community for several centuries before the first burial barrows were built
A period of great change
It is not clear what caused Long Barrows and Causewayed Enclosures to fall into disuse but from about 3200BC they were steadily closed up and abandoned. There is some evidence that this process was more gradual in East Anglia and therefore the traditional Neolithic way of life may have continued longer on Salthouse Heath before they also converted to using round barrows for burials.
The people of Salthouse Heath probably built their barrows between about 3000BC and 700BC. There are several larger and probably earlier barrows which are oriented towards the Lowes valley combined with two tightly grouped clusters which appear to be later in date.
The heath has three named barrows – Gallow Hill, Three Halfpenny Hill and Three Farthing Hill and all three are sited on the eastern edge of the heath with Gallow Hill falling just inside Kelling parish.
Round Barrows
The Late Neolithic period saw burials of specific individuals begin to appear – often enclosed within large circular mounds. These “barrows” started being used as tombs from the late-Neolithic period (3000-2500BC) and they remained a popular form of burial for about two thousand years with significant numbers being constructed across Western Europe. Much of the landscape on which they were built was heathland due to deforestation and a likely deterioration in soil quality. The size, style and content of barrows evolved through the arrival of the Beaker people and culture around 2500BC and subsequently throughout the Bronze Age until around 700BC when, as the Iron Age took over, they were largely discontinued.
The building of the barrow fields – Gallow Hill
Gallow Hill is a large barrow sited near the parish boundary between Kelling and Salthouse at the north eastern corner of the heath. It is approximately 25m wide with a 2m surrounding bank and a height of 1.8m at the apex of the mound. The date of the structure is not known however the scale of the monument suggests late Neolithic or early Bronze Age construction – potentially on the site of an earlier feature.
The site has never been excavated however it appears likely to be one of the oldest barrows constructed. It can be easily accessed from the adjacent road (Wood Lane) although it is sometimes very overgrown.
The grim history of Gallow Hill? It is very possible that Gallow Hill was an execution site during the early middle ages. The early Anglo-Saxons believed that ancient barrows were an entrance to hell and sometimes used those sitting near parish boundaries to execute transgressors. The positioning near the village boundary represented the symbolic exclusion of the miscreant from the community while the proximity to the barrow ensured a rapid journey to the underworld. Although Gallow Hill has never been excavated a similarly titled barrow group at South Acre near Swaffham has been. This site included 119 burials with many showing evidence of violence. Sites used for this purpose often have names including “Gallows” or similar words. There are at least ten other such named places spread across Norfolk.
The building of the barrow fields – Three Halfpenny Hill and Three Farthing Hill
Three Halfpenny Hill sits about 500m south of Gallow Hill and also appears to be Neolithic or early Bronze Age. The barrow is around 21m diameter and has a bank and ditch around it. Three Farthing Hill is somewhat smaller (15m diameter) and is probably middle Bronze Age. Both barrows are believed to be called after the Tudor coins of the same name.
Three Halfpenny Hill and Three Farthing Hill were both excavated in the 19th century with three burial urns being found.
The largest urn was found inside Three Farthing Hill and contained the cremated bones of multiple individuals. It was set on a gravel base surrounded by a crude wall of large flints.
The eastward side of the heath has several other barrows including one which has a diameter of 27m and is the largest barrow on the site.
The building of the barrow fields – the later clusters
During the middle/late Bronze Age there was a second wave of building activity. This phase, which may have lasted many centuries, involved clusters of smaller barrows. One such cluster comprises a group of eight small barrows immediately south of Gallow Hill. Barrows built around this time are often clustered around older structures.
This period of construction also saw about thirty small barrows (now invisible and deeply covered in undergrowth) being built in a very tight group within the triangular section of land marking the western edge of Salthouse Heath. During the 1930s four of these barrows were excavated and yielded some smaller and plainer middle-Bronze Age burial urns.
Tougher lives in the middle/late Bronze Age?
The middle Bronze-Age was widely characterised by the use of smaller barrows including less ornate grave goods – possibly suggesting more socially isolated and poorer family groups. There is some evidence that the British climate became cooler and wetter at this time and it might be that these two groups of tightly clustered barrows on the heath reflect an increasingly challenging existence for the ridge folk. Their desire to build adjacent to older and larger structures like Gallow Hill may indicate a cultural affiliation with a grander past by a population unable to control the changes impacting them. These challenges may be what ultimately caused the heath settlement to be abandoned.
The building of the barrow fields – the western barrows
The western side of the heath also contains a further 15 barrows which are mainly located within Taylors Wood and the adjacent fields falling within the parish of Cley. The northern tip of this group is an isolated barrow situated at the highest point of the heath “The Hangs”. This barrow is the only one overlooking the sea and has extensive views both seaward and into the lowlands of the Glaven valley to the south.
In view of the purpose of Gallow Hill “The Hangs” also sounds somewhat macabre. In fact the name probably refers to the steep slope to the north – and if it is linked to the barrow it is more likely to be derived from “Haugr” a Norse word for barrow.
The other 14 barrows, some of which appear to be quite large, form a loose linear group broadly aligned south east towards The Lowes – interestingly following a bearing that is close to the point of sunrise at the midwinter solstice. The five barrows in Taylors Wood are accessible and quite well preserved, albeit heavily overgrown, while those in the fields are no longer visible.
The Central Heath
In addition, the central area of the heath includes one barrow, now almost invisible, near Bard Hill and then 15-20 mounds of which three appear to be barrows. The remainder might possibly be Bronze Age in origin but could also be workings from WW2. This central area was the most heavily used part of the heath during the war and included a Chain Home Low radar station, dummy airfield lights and several anti-aircraft gun emplacements.