A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
figure, which, it is pointed out, is in its turn half the diameter of Stonehenge.
The outer circle (see fig. 29) consisted of round logs of oak, placed closely side by side. The lower ends of some of them have been noticeably trimmed with a metal axe or adze; a fact which serves as a useful criterion in assigning a date to the remains.
The inner circle is more complex in structure. It is formed of an outer ring of earth, the 'vallum,' about 5 ft. wide and 9 in. high, composed of clay thrown out of the ditch on the inside, which latter is about 5 ft. deep. Inside this again was a low mound, formed also of clay out of the ditch, in which lay concealed a circle composed of eleven rounded oak logs, forming a circle 34 ft. in diameter. In the centre of this were found a group of urns, lying with wooden ashes, in a small rectangular hole. The urns contained calcined bones, and inside one of them was a third smaller vase; these are shown by photograph on Plate VI.
The pottery and the cuts upon the wooden parts are evidence which lead Professor Dawkins to conclude that 'this remarkable burial place falls into line with the large series of burial mounds of the Bronze Age which lie scattered, not only over the area of the British Isles, but over by far the greater portion of Europe.' In other places the material employed for the circles and fences is stone. Here, in place of stone, wood was employed. In this respect the Bleasdale burial place is unique.[1]
In the vicinity of Manchester also have been observed traces of interment by cremation, in the survival of cinerary urns, unaccompanied, however, by any deposit of metal or stone. At Redbank was found an urn 'of late British period' in 1830. At Clifton, on the banks of the Irwell, some workmen in making a trench through gravel came upon part of a skull, with signs of cremation also. A small 'incense cup,' decorated in three tiers, was found on the spot. In 1873, in the grounds of Broughton Hall, in the course of excavation, a V-shaped trench was observed, 3 ft. wide, which descended 7 ft. below the surface. An urn was lying in the middle of the trench filled with mixed materials. It was of coarse clay of a reddish colour, hand made. Its height was 5 in. and 6 in. across its widest parts; the pottery is 1 in. thick all over. The ornamentation is composed of lines lying diagonally, incised with a pointed stick.
In the northernmost part of the county also, at Yealand, which is 2½ miles west of Carnforth, have been found traces of 'neolithic settlement,' and among them 'many barrows of earth and stone.' In one of them was recently found about 'three or four quarts of human bones calcined,' and adjoining the urn a human skeleton and a large (? glass) bead of blue colour.
3. Interments in Lancashire over Sands
Passing north of the Sands a remarkable series of barrows and burial urns give evidence of the habitation of early man, for the most part, so far as can be judged, during the Bronze Age. In the nearer district of Cartmel, at Allithwaite, has been found a small earthen urn containing calcined bones in Yew Tree Field. In Cartmel itself, on the site of the new burial ground, an
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- ↑ Lanc, and Ches. Ant. Soc. xviii. 1900, p. 123.
