214
EXCAVATIONS IN PILLOW MOUNDS AT
HIGH BEACH.
BY S. HAZZLEDINE WARREN, F.G.S.
With 1 Plate and 3 Text Figures.
[Read 30th January, 1926.]
THE examination of the curious group of pillow mounds
at High Beach, which was undertaken in the autumn
of 1925, was financed from funds received by the Essex
Field Club from the winding-up of the Morant Club. I was
present during the greater part of the time that the digging was
proceeding, but I received substantial assistance from Mr. W. H.
Ryde, Mr. Percy Thompson, and one or two others, to whom
my best thanks are due.
It must be admitted that the results of our digging were
somewhat disappointing, although by no means without interest.
As will be seen in the sequel, we obtained some evidence of the
probable date of the mounds, if little of their purpose.
A few years ago I took Mr. O. G. S. Crawford to see the High
Beach mounds, and shortly after our digging was finished he
wrote to me for any information I could give him about them,
to include in a forthcoming book by himself and Mr. A. Keiller, to
be entitled Wessex from the Air. Mr. Crawford's work on the
air-photography of archaeological remains is very well known,
and the Council of the Club gave me permission to furnish him
with a brief summary of our results. In return, Mr. Crawford
sent me the manuscript of the section of his book dealing with
this class of remains, which is, in fact, the first time that they
have been noted as a special class. I feel that I cannot do better
than follow his name of "Pillow mounds" in the title of this
communication. I am also indebted to him for many points
of comparative evidence.
Pillow mounds occur in many parts of the country; Surrey,
Oxfordshire, Berks, Hants, Wilts, Somerset, Dorset, Gloucester-
shire and Dartmoor are among the districts mentioned by Mr.
Crawford. They are most commonly from 50 to 90 feet long
by 20 to 40 feet wide, and 2 to 3 feet high, but some are smaller
and some larger, so that our High Beach mounds are fairly typical.
Sometimes they are gridded with grooves across or along the
top, both parallel and at right angles. Nearly all are surrounded
by shallow ditches.