The Bronze Age
Sites in Lancashire from the Early Bronze Age, or EBA (c. 2300-1500 BC), include WINTER HILL, where a composite cairn stands.
The tumulus was excavated in 1958, and it seems that here once stood a round-house with a turf roof and a central stone hearth (borne testament to by the cairn at the centre of the complex. The primary burial chamber has been robbed out, probably by people seeking artefacts.
One of the most striking remains is that at CHEETHAM CLOSE near Dimple.
A badly time-worn stone circle, with at least two outliers and several satelite cairns is to be found here.
There are two ring-bank cairns and two smaller cairns, whose structure is yet unknown.
Most ring-bank cairns yield urn-burial cremations, dated approximately 1900-1200 BC, i.e. the phase directly succeeding the Bell Beaker period. The present site was primarily excavated in 1893, and again in 1954, under M. Fletcher, during which a saddle quern was discovered.
A possible large Bronze Age burial mound is situated at CARVE HILL, and a saddle quern and barbed and tanged arrowheads of flint have been recovered at COMBE HILL, near Wycoller.
This site seems to have been near to a flint-knapping factory, possibly with Neolithic origins, in the vicinity of Robin Hood’s House – in fact, this is probably where the barbed and tanged arrowheads, associated with the Early Bronze Age, were knapped.
Many Lancashire sites have a very ancient origin, possibly even in this time, such as ROUND LOAF TUMULUS, a round cairn or bowl barrow, requiring further investigation, and the kerbed mound at STANDING STONES HILL, given its name by the stone retaining circle. The latter has the distinction of being, so it seems, intact.
TWO LADS is a cairn complex on Rivington Moor, and nearby NOON HILL TUMULUS has yielded barbed and tanged arrowheads, as well as several funerary remains. The round cairn has been disturbed, but there are traces of a central burial.
There were secondary cremations also, as attested by excavation, including one contained in a large food vessel, which lay in a stone cist. Along with the arrowheads, this can be seen in the Bolton Museum.
Other urn-period remains were found in a site at ASHLEIGH STREET in Darwen, sadly destroyed in October 1864 during work to create foundations for Ashleigh House. Ten internments were discovered. Two of the urns contained ‘incense cups’, and another a 7.5 inch dagger.
One was a heap of burned bones, probably not interred in an urn, and maybe dating from a different period, or disposed of in a hurry. The urn design seems to point to a Middle Bronze Age date.
During the Middle Bronze Age (c. 1500 – 1000 BC), people had almost completed moving down from the hilltops and continued clearing the densely-wooded and marshy areas in the valley floors.
By 1200 BC, another new group, bearing the “Urnfield” culture, arrived in this island, creating a warrior aristocracy, bringing with them the use of swords.
It has been hypothesised that one of their itinerant aspects was Celtic, as these people seemed to originate in the Central to Eastern part of Europe, moving swiftly in the wake of the fall of the empire of Mycenae.
It may be during this time that the arrival of the legendary first British king (and her eponym) BRUTUS is to be placed, a few generations after the fall of Troy (this story, however, is more likely to be symbolic and apocryphal).
This group were succeeded, towards the close of the Late Bronze Age (c. 1000 – 650 BC) by a specifically Celtic group, bearing Hallstatt C culture, and the new metal – iron.
