The Devil's Jumps are a group of five large bell barrows situated on the

South Downs The South Downs are a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, in the Eastbourne Downland Estate, East Sussex, in the eas ...

south-east of Treyford in the county of

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ...

in southern

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The Devil's Jumps site is listed as a

Scheduled Ancient Monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...

and as a Local Nature Reserve. Most barrows along the South Downs have been damaged by agriculture and treasure hunters but the Devil's Jumps are considered to be the best preserved

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

barrow group in Sussex. The barrows are laid out in a line running approximately south-east to north-west. The five barrows vary in diameter from and stand up to high. Two smaller barrows were situated close to the five main mounds. Traces remain of a sixth barrow. The Devil's Jumps have been dated to the Bronze Age and they are believed to be between three and four thousand years old. The Devil's Jumps were explored in the 19th century, when bones were found in two of the mounds, although some of the barrows contained no cremated remains at all. The main line of five barrows is aligned with sunset on

Midsummer Day Midsummer is a celebration of the season of summer usually held at a date around the summer solstice. It has pagan pre-Christian roots in Europe. The undivided Christian Church designated June 24 as the feast day of the early Christian martyr S ...

. The site is managed by the Murray Downland Trust and is cleared of overgrowth. The land is currently grazed by sheep and cattle as a part of this management. In 2009 permission was given by the landowners to clear trees from the site and return it to

chalk Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Ch ...

downland Downland, chalkland, chalk downs or just downs are areas of open chalk hills, such as the North Downs. This term is used to describe the characteristic landscape in southern England where chalk is exposed at the surface. The name "downs" is deriv ...

Folklore

The Devil's Jumps are the focus of local folklore, apparently transferred from the Devil's Jumps near

Churt Churt is a village and civil parish in the borough of Waverley in Surrey, England, about south of the town of Farnham on the A287 road towards Hindhead. A clustered settlement is set in areas acting as its green buffers, which include the ...

in the neighbouring county of Surrey. According to the story, the god

Thor Thor (; from non, Þórr ) is a prominent god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred groves and trees, strength, the protection of humankind, hallowing, an ...

used to sit on Treyford Hill. One day the

Devil A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of ...

saw the five barrows and started to jump from one to the next in order to amuse himself. This enraged Thor, who threw a stone at the Devil, causing him to flee.Simpson 2002, pp.58-59.

Notes

References

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External links

The Murray Downland Trust
the organisation that manages the site. {{coord, 50, 56, 57, N, 0, 49, 37, W, type:landmark, display=title Archaeological sites in West Sussex Barrows in England West Sussex folklore Scheduled monuments in West Sussex Bronze Age sites in West Sussex

Folklore

See also

Notes

References

External links