SCHEDULE ENTRY COPY

MONUMENT:   Seven Sisters round barrow, Copt Hill, Houghton-le-Spring

PARISH:            SUNDERLAND

DISTRICT:        SUNDERLAND

COUNTY:         TYNE AND WEAR

NATIONAL MONUMENT NO:   32055

NATIONAL GRID REFERENCE:   NZ35344921

Description of the Monument

The monument includes the round barrow known as Seven Sisters.  It is situated in arable land on the western flank of Copt Hill and is 300m south of Copt Hill public house.

The barrow mound is 3m high and approximately 25m in diameter.  It is of earth and stone construction.  The stones include magnesian limestone and sandstone.  To the west and north west of the mound there are visible remains of a surrounding bank.  An aerial photograph of the monument indicates a further boundary to the west and north of the mound about 25m from the edge of the mound, and a rectilinear cropmark to the east believed to be the terminal of a cursus.

Excavation of the barrow in 1877 by Canon William Greenwell and Mr T Robinson revealed that the primary burial was a Neolithic cremation believed to be an example of an axial mortuary structure.  There were also several Bronze Age cremations and inhumations, and an early medieval inhumation.

Location