Marlborough Mound

The River Kennet near Axford.

The mound is located on the western side of Marlborough within the grounds of Marlborough College, close to the confluence of the nearby River Kennett.[1] Other notable sites in close proximity to the mound include Silbury Hill (about 5 miles (8 km) due west of the mound), Hatfield Barrow, Sherrington Mound, Manton Barrow, and Marlborough Common barrow cemetery.

The mound is over 18 metres tall from the present ground surface and its summit has a height of 149.76 metres OD. The basal diameter is 83 metres and it measures 31 metres across the top. The structure of the mound has changed over time, often to accommodate the various functions that it has served. By 1654, it had been integrated into the grounds of the stately home built adjacent to it. The occupants, the Seymour family, landscaped the mound and cut or re-cut a spiral path that progressed around the mound from the base to the summit. The walkway is a little over 1.5 metres wide, requiring four circuits of the mound to summit it. Additionally, concrete steps are built into the south side of the mound, allowing modern access.[1]

Several academic archaeologists and historians such as Joshua Pollard and Jim Leary have discussed understanding the construction of the mound not in terms of the finished product but rather as a series of stages. This series is speculated to have taken about a century: a series of smaller mounds progressively enlarged with gravel and clay. Thus, scholars prefer to think about the Neolithic mound in terms of its stages of development and not as a finished product.[5]

Sample cores taken in 2010 by Geotechnical Engineering Ltd provided information about the natural materials used in the mound's structure. These materials included several varieties of clay in several colours such as chalky, pale silty and yellowish brown, as well as flinty gravel. Samples of charcoal were taken which allowed for radiocarbon dating, and it is these pieces that provided the age of the mound as a Neolithic construction.[1]

The original purpose of Marlborough Mound is unclear; however, there is wide historical coverage of how the mound has been used through time. A prevailing local legend was that the mound was the site of Merlin's burial, given the motto of the town of Marlborough 'ubi nunc sapientis ossa Merlini' (where now are the bones of the wise Merlin).[6] William Stukeley, the antiquarian, believed a Roman fort once occupied the site where the mound is located, based on the finding of Roman coins.[1] Roman artefacts were found in subsequent investigations by A.S Eve in 1892 and H.C Brentnall in 1938.[7][8]

British historian Ronald Hutton speculates that the mound fits into several classes of purpose used by the prehistoric scholarly community: either an oratorical platform used for social purposes by a community, or having ritual meaning to the community.[5]

The presence of a medieval tower constructed from timber – and later stone for which the mound served as the motte – has been well documented. In 1067, William the Conqueror assumed control of the Marlborough area and assigned Roger, Bishop of Salisbury, to construct the wooden motte-and-bailey castle on the mound. There is further evidence for the presence of the castle from the imprisonment and death there of Ethelric, bishop of Selsey, in 1070.[9] The neighbouring Savernake Forest was made into a royal hunting ground, and Marlborough Castle became a royal residence. Stone was later used to strengthen the castle, around 1175. Between 1227 and 1272, Henry III invested in the renovation of the castle, particularly the residential areas, as well as the chapel of St Nicholas.[10] After his death, Marlborough lost favour as a royal residence. The castle fell into disrepair after it was no longer used from 1370. It was observed to be ruinous from 1541.[8][1] Edward VI then passed it to the Seymour family as he had relations with them through his mother.[4]

After this, the mound was developed by the families who occupied the property. The Seymours excavated a cavern and built a shell grotto as well as a spiral road to the summit.[1] During her life, Lady Hertford incorporated the mound into the gardens of the stately home. In this sense, the mound forms part of a tradition of garden mounds which were prominent in Britain from the end of the 16^th century. The shell grotto was later used as a bike shed once the mound ceased to be incorporated into the gardens. Three pools sunk into the ground outside the entrance to the grotto reflected sunlight inside from the surface of the water.[5]

After the last Duke of Somerset on that branch died, the stately home disintegrated into a coaching house, the Castle Inn, which was operating from 1751. At the height of trade, forty two coaches passed through the Castle Inn each day as Marlborough was conveniently located on the road from London to Bath.[11]

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the mound served as the site for a water tank for Marlborough College, established in 1843, which has since been removed.[4][5]

Interior of the Shell Grotto built into the side of Marlborough Mound

Most recorded investigation and speculation about the mound have occurred from the late 18^th century to the present day. The methodologies used by investigators have varied from the use of traditional excavation to modern coring. One of the first investigations was made by William Stukeley in 1776 who wrote in the Itinerarium Curiosum of the recovery of Roman coins at the site.

The nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are characterised by traditional archaeological techniques. The hypothesis that Marlborough Mound was archaeologically connected with Silbury Hill was first posited in 1821 by Richard C. Hoare in his publication The Ancient History of Wiltshire where he placed the two sites within a larger archaeological complex.[12] Additionally, Hoare suggested that the site was of prehistoric origin. In 1892, a publication of recent excavations at Marlborough College included an antler found in the slopes of the mound.[8] Additional antlers were found in the years afterward by H.C Brentnall, a schoolmaster at the college, and fuelled Hoare’s original case for prehistoric origins of the mound in opposition to the idea that it was a burial site for Merlin or constructed solely to accommodate the Norman castle. Brentnall suggested that the impregnation of chalk on the antlers made it unlikely that they could have been buried subsequent to the mound's construction.[13] Additionally, two Roman coins were recovered from his 'castle ditch'.

As the twentieth century progressed, the finding of medieval artefacts as well as a review of previously assembled evidence caused there to be some questioning of the prehistoric origins. In 1955 and 1956, excavations on the western side found refuse from the medieval period which included Norman pottery. As late as 1997, it was concluded that the mound fitted within the size range of a medieval motte. An analysis of available evidence concluded that without additional findings the mound was 'essentially a medieval construction'.[1]

In the late twentieth to early twenty first centuries, investigation into the mound has continued. The Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England surveyed the mound in 1999.[14] The Marlborough Mound began to be thought of as a possible comparative site to Silbury Hill in 2008. Extracting dateable material from the mound was thought to be best achieved by taking cores from the mound. Geotechnical Engineering Ltd facilitated this operation and removed six cores, two taken from boreholes made at the summit. In a paper by Jim Leary, Matthew Canti, David Field, Peter Fowler and Gill Campbell, the age of the mound was dated to the second half of the third millennium. The earliest date (terminus post quem) for the construction was found to be 2580–2470 cal BC.[1]

Recently, the interest in investigating the mound has bought it into a broader discussion of how mounds can be used to learn about the people that lived in this part of Neolithic Britain. These questions have been asked from a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives. Archaeologist Jim Leary has suggested a metaphysical link to, and veneration of, water. His theory is based on proximity to the River Kennet which is also characteristic of Silbury Hill. Rivers in the Neolithic period were a means of transport and thus life-giving. Likewise, geologist Isobel Geddes links the positioning of the mound as an expression of water worship. Nigel Bryant suggested the mound was a monument to the Earth goddess. Furthermore, it has been observed that the period in which the mound and the others in Wiltshire were constructed coincided with the appearance of early English Beakers. This has led to a contention that the construction of the mound is related to an assertion of a native population during a period of social and cultural mobility.[15]

The restoration of the mound is in part a response to the state of disrepair of the mound since its more aesthetically pleasing appearance as part of Lady Hertford’s garden, as well as the renewal of scholarly interest in the mound and the site. In the 1980s, work commenced on restoring the shell grotto, which was supervised by Diana Reynell and assisted by pupils of Marlborough College.[16][4][5]

Much of the restoration effort has been intended to address the risk of collapse and maintain the structural integrity of the mound. Recently, more structural conservation has been undertaken by Donald Insall Associates as a response to the growing dangers of destabilisation by tree roots.[17] The late Peter Carey, who managed part of the restoration works, highlighted the overgrowing of trees on the mound as a danger: if one fell, it could risk destroying the entire mound. Thus, as of 2016, goals of the restoration included the removal of the tree canopy, stabilising the earth with grasses, laying fresh soil and the injection of a gel on top of the mound in order to hold the existing structure together.[5] Removal of trees and planting of hedges was completed in 2020.[18]