Fairy Toot

The Fairy Toot is an extensive oval barrow in the civil parish of Nempnett Thrubwell, Somerset, England (grid reference ST520618).

Fairy Toot
Fairy Toot Field
Shown within Somerset
Locationnear Nempnett Thrubwell and Bristol
RegionSomerset, England
Coordinates51.353117°N 2.689946°W / 51.353117; -2.689946
Typeoval barrow
Site notes
Conditionsome damage

It is an example of the Severn-Cotswold tomb type which consist of precisely-built, long trapezoid earth mounds covering a burial chamber. Because of this they are a type of chambered long barrow.

Fairy Toot was formerly a chambered cairn which is a Scheduled Ancient Monument.[1] Located south-southwest of Howgrove Farm, it is a mound 60 m long, 25 m wide and now 2.5 m high, retained by a stone wall. Its summit is covered with ash trees and shrubs.[2] Formerly it was considerably higher.

On being opened and essentially destroyed between 1787 and 1835 by the Reverend Thomas Bere of Butcombe and the Reverend John Skinner of Camerton,[3] it was found to contain two rows of cells, running from south to north, formed by immense stones set edgeways, and covered by others of larger dimensions. A human skull from the barrow is now in the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery.[4]

At the time it was conjectured to be a work of the Druids, but its origins are far older and probably date from the Neolithic period.[5]

Wade and Wade in their 1929 book "Somerset" described it as "a remarkably fine tumulus of masonry, said to have been one of the finest in Britain, in the chambers of which skeletons have been discovered. A few vestiges of it now only remain, the rest has been used as a lime-kiln."[6]

The site was visited in the past as it was known as a place for curing warts.[7]

References
  1. Historic England. "The Fairy Toot long barrow 350m SSW of Howgrove Farm (1008181)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  2. "Fairy Toot". Retrieved 2006-05-12.
  3. Dunn, Richard (2004). Nempnett Thrubwell:Barrows, Names and Manors. Nempnett Books. pp. 33–62. ISBN 0-9548614-0-X.
  4. "Fairy Toot". National Monuments Record. English Heritage. Archived from the original on 2 October 2012. Retrieved 2 April 2011.
  5. "Nempnett Thrubwell". GENUKI. Retrieved 2006-05-12.
  6. Somerset by Wade, G.W. & Wade, J.H. at Project Gutenberg
  7. Leete-Hodge, Lornie (1985). Curiosities of Somerset. Bodmin: Bossiney Books. p. 20. ISBN 0-906456-98-3.
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