Romano-British Burial Mounds

Thornborough, Buckinghamshire

NGRef: SP732333 OSMap: LR152/165 Type: 2 Barrows
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Two well-preserved Romano-British burial mounds lie side-by-side in a field beside the River Twin close to a favoured picnic spot near Thornborough in Buckinghamshire. The barrows were unprofessionally excavated in 1859 when the larger one, measuring about 120 ft. in diameter and about 16 ft. high (36.5 x 4.9 m), was found to contain 2nd-century samian pottery, two bronze jugs, two amphorae, a patera or frying skillet, a two-handled bowl, a lamp and a glass vessel which contained the remains of a human cremation. Excavations in 1972-3 revealed seven more Romano-British cremation burials with associated grave-goods of pottery and glass in the area.

There is a Romano-Celtic temple about 110 yards to the south of the nearby medieval bridge at Bourton Grounds.

See: Britain in the Roman Empire by Joan Liversidge (London 1968) p.496;
A Guide to the Roman Remains in Britain by Roger J.A. Wilson (Constable, London, 2002, 4th ed.) p.255/6.

This page is dedicated to Michael Baker

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