Whitfield's Tump, Minchinhampton Common

Whitfield's Tump is a long, low mound on the north-west of Minchinhampton Common, above Amberley and the valley towards Nailsworth. It is a Neolithic long barrow, a communal grave built by the first farmers in Britain more than four thousand years ago. It takes its name from the eighteenth-century preacher George Whitefield.

History

Long barrows are the earliest monuments to the dead in Britain. Historic England dates long barrows as a class to the Early and Middle Neolithic, about 3400 to 2400 BC by its reckoning, when farming communities built long mounds of earth and stone over the bones of many people, often added to over generations. This one survives as a clear earthwork in the turf.

What the mound holds

The mound was dug from two parallel ditches, one on either side, which have since silted up and now lie buried under the turf. Its south-eastern end has been disturbed, possibly by an excavation that nobody recorded, and a small round mound beside it is thought to be the spoil heap from that dig. No record of what it found survives.

George Whitefield's sermon

The name comes from George Whitefield, one of the leaders of the evangelical revival, who preached in the open air to crowds across England. His diary for March 1743, as Playne quotes it, records preaching to about 12,000 people at Stroud and then, at about six in the evening, to "a like number on Hampton Common", and Playne's history of the parishes of Minchinhampton and Avening says he no doubt spoke from the top of this mound. Historic England gives the name as a tradition, and the spelling has drifted from his: the barrow is usually written Whitfield's, the preacher Whitefield.

What to see

The barrow runs north-west to south-east, 26m long and 15m wide, and rises to about 1.3m at its highest. It is easiest to read from a little distance, as a long swelling in the grass, with the hollow and the small spoil mound at the south-east end. From here the ground falls away to the west, and the views run out over Amberley and the wooded valleys.

Visiting

Whitfield's Tump is on open National Trust common land, free and open at all times. The ground is rough grass, with no surfaced path to the mound. Cattle graze the common and wander across its roads; dogs are welcome under close control, and the National Trust asks for a short lead around livestock and from March to August, when birds nest on the ground. It is a scheduled monument, so do not dig or ride on it. Winter and evening light show the mound and its old disturbance best.

Getting there

Drive onto the common and use one of the small car parks beside the roads across it, open dawn until dusk, then walk north-west over the grass towards Amberley. The 620 bus between Stroud and Bath stops at Tom Long's Post on the common, Monday to Saturday, a longer walk across the grass. From Minchinhampton itself it is about 2km on foot across the common.

Nearby

The Amberley Inn is the closest place for a drink, about half a kilometre away, and the Old Lodge is in the middle of the common. The Black Horse at Littleworth, on the common's edge, has a conservatory looking across the valley. On the same common lie the Iron Age bank of the Bulwarks; south-east of the town stands the Long Stone, and to the north is Rodborough Common, with the Bear of Rodborough on its edge. Our guide to Stroud and the Five Valleys covers the country round about.